Studies show only 20 to 40 percent of students read assigned texts and are prepared for class discussions. To address this issue we created the "3-2-1 Reading Assignment," in which students engage in critical reading and deep learning by providing "three" points that summarize the text, "two" points that analyze it,…

It is commonly accepted in the academy that developing a critical thinking capacity and related capabilities will make students more effective thinkers and writers, and that these are desirable traits for graduates to have no matter what path they take after graduation. While most academics agree that critical thinking is an essential component of…

D. Elkonin's thesis that thinking is much more closely related to writing than to oral speech formed the basis of our three-year formative experiment at the elementary school level. In order to test this idea, second-graders through fourth-graders were given a few assignments in which they were asked to exchange thoughts in writing with their…

Teachers of standards based, College Prep English classes regularly face resistant and struggling readers who fail to engage, persevere, and comprehend curricular texts. As a result, these readers do not share in class discussions. Therefore, a class discourse was formulated upon Gee's (1996) Social Discourse theory and Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, and…

The data gathered for this study supports the hypothesis that using journal writing, as a follow-up to reading literature, would improve second graders' ability to comprehend texts. The study compares the effects of journal writing and language-related activities on reading comprehension. Two groups of second graders were pre- and post-tested in…

Investigates the effectiveness of the story impression method--a prewriting activity that develops a schema for ideas found in the story. Suggests that students enjoy using the story clues to write a prestory. Finds that story impressions are a powerful tool for helping all readers (including remedial readers) improve their comprehension. Appends…

A study investigated what effect, if any, a planned program of writing activities had on reading comprehension. A group of second grade students from Linden Elementary School, West Virginia, were the subjects. Subjects were divided into a control (12 students) and an experimental (13 students) group. Both groups were given a pretest and a…