Schools tend to have a built-in bias toward left brain activities (tasks that are linear and sequential in nature), so the introduction of right brain activities (functions related to music, rhythm, images, color, imagination, daydreaming, dimensions) brings a balance into the classroom and helps those students who may be right brain oriented. To…

Focusing on the importance of the search for meaning in reading, the essays in this book address critical reading and the confusion about the place of skill development in the search for meaning. The following works are included: "Introduction to the 50th Yearbook" (M. P. Douglass); "The Quest for Meaning" (M. Poplin);…

Intended for all teachers in middle and secondary schools, this handbook provides samples and models to help develop activities that improve students' reading skills. A practical guide, it answers specific questions about reading and suggests activities that teachers can adapt to the specific texts and concerns of their subject area. Each section…

Containing a review of recent research on critical reading and six appendixes detailing course tasks and assignments in an introductory literature course, this essay aims to help teachers develop students' ability to read and write about literature critically. The essay, which focuses on how these course tasks coincide with the findings of recent…

Organized by sections of the newspaper, this booklet contains activity sheets that can be used to teach basic skills in a variety of subject areas, including language arts, reading, mathematics, social studies, and science. Designed for adaptation to most grade levels, the activity sheets allow students to use different newspaper sections to…

The primary aim of the reading center at Brigham Young University (Utah) is to teach typical university students critical reading skills, not just to work with students needing remedial or basic help. The reading center also serves as a resource for teachers in all disciplines who want help in recognizing and evaluating good reading, or who want…

Thinking through Writing (TTW) was a project to develop, test, and disseminate a program for teaching thinking and writing skills in secondary school English and social studies courses. Each of the 12 schools participating in the project scheduled a group of students to take an English and a social studies course in the program, and two teachers…

The objective of Project SCATE (Students Concerned About Tomorrow's Environment) is for students to investigate environmental problems and the political processes involved in their solution. The four identified areas of concern are: (1) land use policy development; (2) air and water quality; (3) energy allocation and consumption; and (4) economic…

These reprints from the "English Journal's" department, "Poetry in the Classroom," present successful approaches to teaching 22 poems. The poems are grouped under seven headings: "Poems from the Tradition,""The Creation,""The Carpe Diem Theme,""Where Shall Man Journey?""Symbolic Settings,""Poems for the Junior High School," and "Poems of our…

A reading program should stimulate intellectual curiosity. This philosophy is expressed in a 1967 reading guide for primary and secondary schools prepared by the Reading Committee of the Union 40 Curriculum Council of Milford, New Hampshire. It was developed as a result of the 1966 curriculum study by the Union 40 Curriculum Council. While it is…

To increase a student's insight into imaginative works, help him relate his personal experience to the metaphoric structure of literature, and bring him to perceive the value of an educated imagination, the teacher should introduce him to literary analysis and various approaches to literary form. Although a perfect critical system which…

All literature teachers agree that students should read with perception, enjoy reading, and continue reading after classes have ended. Because perception promotes the pleasure that leads to continued reading, the basic step toward improved reading is to increase perception. The "index-card" system, which focuses attention on textual explication,…

To help students learn important reading skills and habits and become independent learners, remedial reading laboratories should begin at the level of the student's competence, provide ample practice in reading and language skills, and provide immediate feedback and evaluation. The University of Idaho Learning Resource Center supplements the…

Documented and detailed accounts of productive thinking and concept attainment provide the essence of this textbook intended for use by graduate students who are interested in the teaching of reading as a cognitive process. The first part of the book explains how the foundations of reading instruction are based on thinking. The second and third…

This pamphlet was written to provide guidance on the teaching of literature in the Scottish primary and secondary schools. An introduction points out the reasons for teaching literature and suggests criteria by which to select worthwhile texts and plan programs. The place of oral literature and poetry in the primary school and the need for primary…