This activity book uses the whole language approach to encourage young readers and prereaders to become critical listeners and viewers by comparing different versions of familiar fairy tales ("The Three Little Pigs" and "Beauty and the Beast"). Class activities, educational games, posters, and student activity pages are…

Reports on the experiences of students in a community college vocational program (approximately 60% African American and 30% Asian American) in banking and finance and the jobs students got and lost in the data center of a bank. Concerns about workers' literacy problems are explored. (SLD)

Builds a case for a careful reexamination of what it means to teach students to think critically. Briefly summarizes three noteworthy studies of higher-order thinking programs and discusses some of their fallacious assumptions. Proposes a more realistic and attainable approach to higher order thinking titled "reflective judgment." (MJP)

In this description of a learning community for "at-risk" and basic writing students at the University of Wyoming, I outline the reasons our students resist academic writing prior to their entry into college--reasons largely unrelated to typical perceptions of at-risk students as "lazy" or intellectually less capable. For…

The fifth grade social studies curriculum includes a study democracy within the context of United Sates history. The traditional approach to teaching the material focuses on stories of the white, male heroes of American History and calls on students to be passive recipients of information. History is presented as a series of events that "just…

The strategies in this book, geared for students from grades 4-8, are designed to bring literature to life for students, and to encourage students to become lifelong readers. The first section of the book presents four "'Into' Activities" that are designed to get students excited and curious about what they are about to read and to build students'…

A study examined how critical literacy activities within a homeschooling education project sustained or transformed the participants' awareness of gender identities and inequities in texts. Subjects were two brother pairs who had been close friends for over 4 years at the time of the study. The older brothers (13 years of age) attended a rural…

A teacher used classics of children's literature to teach critical reading skills. Although scoring above the national average on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), the teacher's fourth-grade gifted students exhibited problems with critical reading skills. A literature unit involving whole language strategies and using Beverly Cleary's…

Concerned with redefining instructional theory related to the teaching and learning processes in literature, this paper concentrates on articulating principles underlying literature instruction that can be taught in methods courses and that can become the framework that teachers internalize and use to make daily decisions about their teaching and…

The autobiography "I, Rigoberta Menchu" is a complicated text--the conditions of its production, the complexity of its subject matter, and the wide range of possible responses among North American readers create challenges for composition students and instructors. A week of taped interviews with Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan Indian…

This issue of "Teachergram" addresses media-related issues such as the kind of world picture Canadians receive from mainstream media, the ability of television to describe the complexity of world events, and the claim of distorted and simplistic portrayal of developing nations. Students are encouraged critical perspective--to help them…

A practicum was designed to improve reading comprehension of 10 basic skills college students by providing training using 5 specific strategies and techniques. Five specific strategies based on a review of the literature were selected: (1) metacognitive awareness; (2) discussion; (3) self-monitoring charts; (4) use of pictures as an introduction…

Based on Bloom's Taxonomy of thought, this thematic reading comprehension unit on "loneliness" is intended for teachers of grades 7-9. The thinking process is broken into six categories: (1) recall; (2) inference; (3) application; (4) analysis; (5) synthesis; and (6) evaluation. A short description is given for each of these processes.…

This document provides an overview of a Critical Literacy Project (CLP), involving a year-long faculty development seminar designed to help faculty reevaluate teaching strategies and redesign courses to include critical reading, writing, and thinking. The CLP addresses problems common to many community colleges: a large proportion of students…

A mapping strategy for improving critical thinking about expository text was employed in a study designed to help six high school students with difficulties in reading comprehension. Subjects were four sophomores in a remedial reading program and two juniors in a special education program for the mildly retarded. Subjects read passages from an…