Describes a comprehension questioning strategy, based on R. Stauffer's Directed Reading-Thinking Activity, that enhances students' use of reasoning on the basis of prior knowledge. (FL)

Describes teaching students how to evaluate materials containing judgments based on a modification of a model by J. E. Sparks and C. Johnson called the pyramid of reading power. (EL)

In this lesson, students draw on their previous studies of American history and culture as they analyze primary sources from "Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s" in the American Memory collection. A close reading of two documents relating to Jackie Robinson's breaking of the racial barrier in professional baseball…

This quarterly newsletter covers educational issues affecting schools in WestEd's 4-state region (Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah) and nationwide. This Summer 1999 edition contains a lead article entitled "Reading for Understanding: A Modern Urban Success Story," which describes a course in "academic literacy," developed…

Demonstrating a critical stance requires readers to stand apart from the text and consider it objectively. It involves a range of tasks including critical evaluation; comparing and contrasting; and understanding the impact of such features as irony, humor, and organization. According to this paper, the selection of appropriate literature is a…

A study used three Newbery books--"The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle (Lofting, 1922), "Charlotte's Web" (White, 1952), and "Maniac Magee" (Spinelli, 1990)--to examine three female characters identified in these books in the role of rescuer, accentuating their commonalities and differences within Jungian and feminist theory in…

As students move on to more challenging texts in middle and high school, their reading skills do not grow automatically to meet those demands. They need help figuring out "how" to read, not just "what" to read. As the focus on reading more sophisticated kinds of texts intensifies in schools, student need more help than ever.…

This compilation of one new article and 11 previously published articles from the Australian Literacy Educators' Association offers diverse perspectives on critical literacy. The articles explain the principles of critical literacy from a theoretical perspective, illustrate the comparative changes between theories of literacy development, detail…

This series of four videotapes and a viewing guide is designed to complement the book "Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding." Its author/educators invite teachers to help their students read for deeper meaning and insight, employing a group of research-based strategies that proficient readers use to…

Though the expressivist and process movements rightly banished literary interpretation from the writing class, they went much too far in similarly banishing the study of texts and reading in favor of the "productive" act of writing. This paper argues that undergraduates can play their "professors' game," the Burkean parlor game of Kristeva's…

The paper has two main parts. In the first part, some current thinking on the nature of the stereotypes and the role of schools in their propagation, as well as in their analysis, is reviewed. In the second part, suggestions are described and exemplified for some classroom techniques--to be used mainly with the reading of literature--which may…

Traces the trends in reading instruction, and proposes that reading be taught according to the Quantity Reading Method in which students are given a brief course in reading skills, followed by opportunities to read widely and quantitatively. References. (VJ)

Discusses a project which used menus from a local restaurant for teaching vocabulary and critical reading skills with fourth grade pupils. Both the students and the teacher judged the project successful in terms of pupils' increased interest and knowledge. (VJ)