Discusses instructional approaches to content area reading that are described in ERIC documents. Among the areas discussed are prereading activities; strategies to support comprehension as students read; an integrated approach to vocabulary, comprehension, and textbook organization; and kits of materials for integrating reading skills into content…

Suggests that critical reading and reading comprehension be taught separately at first to insure that students learn both to understand and to evaluate pieces of writing. (MKM)

Evaluates the characteristics common to most reading programs and offers suggestions for keeping a program a learning rather than a testing situation. (HTH)

Describes how teachers can incorporate the use of comprehension monitoring activities into the guided reading phase of basal reading instruction. (FL)

Discusses how directed reading activities and vocabulary guides can be used in an English classroom to help improve students' reading comprehension. (HOD)

Describes a Silent Directed Thinking Activity that was based on an abridged version of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" and used with eighth-grade remedial classes. (HOD)

Shows how a content area teacher can help students relate prior experiences to the new information to be gained through the reading assignment. (MKM)

The study found that instructing 13 learning-disabled junior high students in the necessary prior knowledge (information and vocabulary concepts) led to superior reading comprehension performance. Textually explicit text structure also improved reading comprehension. (DB)

The Effective Reading in Content Areas (ERICA) teaching model comprises four stages: preparing for reading, thinking through information, extracting and organizing information, and translating information. Aspects to consider in the first stage include the preparation of ideas, text, and vocabulary. Two strategies can be used to promote reflection…

Concludes that literal and inferential comprehension scores were not higher for sixth-grade students taught by moral dilemma questioning techniques than for those taught by the directed reading activity method or those participating in regular classes. (FL)

This paper addresses the value and components of developing prereading skills to improve students' reading comprehension. Prereading activities are seen to prepare the student to both read and comprehend the story and involve cognitive engagement with ideas crucial to comprehension of the reading material. Teachers are urged to develop the…

Describes how to help children comprehend what they read using an experience-text-relationship method of discussing and reading class material. (MKM)

Describes a teacher modeling technique whose purpose is to form a comprehensive approach to modeling metacognitive strategies through direct explanation of the reading comprehension process. (HOD)

Argues that new vocabulary words should be presented in concept clusters and related to prior knowledge to facilitate organization in memory. Presents a sample lesson for science vocabulary. (HOD)

Outlines instructional implications of a theory of reading comprehension that holds that a transaction takes place between reader and text during which the reader derives meaning from printed marks based on personal experiences. (AEA)