The goal of education in general and of reading instruction in particular is to prepare students for the future. The psychological, social, and economic changes brought about by technological advancements require reading teachers to make a number of changes and adjustments in their classrooms. To prepare students for a world shaped by technology,…

"Alaska's Image in the Lower 48," is the theme selected by a Blue Ribbon panel of state and national leaders who felt that it was important for students to explore the relationship between Alaska's outside image and the effect of that image on the federal programs/policies that impact Alaska. An overview of Alaska is presented first in…

Grant projects sponsored by the California State University during 1980-1982 to improve writing and critical reading across the disciplines are discussed. Seven campus writing projects and two critical reading projects were supported by the Academic Program Improvement Fund. Four of the writing projects used faculty workshops and training…

The ten lessons in this guide outline objectives and activities that will help gifted students to write intelligibly and creatively and to read with understanding and appreciation. Each of the lessons focuses on an aspect of literature, such as story line, building toward a climax, how plot is influenced by theme, characterization, tone,…

A collection of 33 reading items are presented for state and local education agencies to draw upon in designing their own minimal competency tests. These items, developed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, have been reviewed in terms of their appropriateness for testing competencies required for high school graduation. The items…

Addresses challenges faced by bilingual children transitioning to literacy in English when answering reading comprehension questions requiring interpretation and synthesis of information related to fictitious characters' thoughts. Notes that understanding a character's perspective may depend on inference, rather than on lexical content within a…

In this article, the author addresses a problem encountered in her own professional life as a teacher of writing in the context of computing, a teaching field often referred to as "computers and writing," "electronic writing," or "computer-assisted writing instruction." The problem she has observed has to do with teaching technology in a…

This article looks closely at a subset of books about literacy in and out of school by analyzing images of children learning and struggling to learn to read in realistic fiction. There are several books in which characters wish to learn to read, worry about being poor readers, and work hard to learn to read. These books raise important questions…

A study investigated the effectiveness of a program for improving the recreational reading habits of elementary students through the use of cross-age tutoring in critical reading strategies. The targeted population consisted of a kindergarten and a fourth-grade class in the growing upper-middle-class community of Geneva, Illinois, located…

This language arts unit of study for high ability learners in grades 5-6 highlights persuasion in oral and written form, focusing especially on oral communication. Emphasis is placed on providing evidence for opinions. Students must cite passages from literature to defend their points of view in discussion as well as in written arguments.…

Combining a student workbook and a teacher's guide, this booklet is designed to help students reading at the sixth grade level develop their ability to (1) find facts quickly, (2) locate main ideas and supporting information, (3) remember what was read, (4) determine a word's meaning from context, and (5) decide when to use specialized reading…

To provide a differentiated language arts program to meet the needs of highly able and gifted readers and to encourage interest in reading and the development of state reading goals, students in the sixth grade of a middle school in Maryland were grouped by ability for their language arts/reading classes. Students were exposed to a wide variety of…

One in a series of reading, writing, and mathematics subject booklets offered to acquaint teachers with the skills tested in each content area on the New Jersey High School Proficiency Test, this booklet on reading presents material that can be used in lesson planning and preparation of materials to ensure coverage of all skills throughout the…

While ability to read and think critically is the very basis of post-secondary education, increasing numbers of college students lack these skills. A sequence of two courses in critical reading and thinking are currently offered in the Concentrated Studies program at Duquesne University in Pennsylvania. In these courses, students who are…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 19 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the relationship between the use of intonation and reading comprehension; (2) developmental and information processing factors in second and third graders'…