Part of a section, "4 Reading Techniques that Work.

Describes how role-playing is used to get high school students involved in the critical reading of novels like Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native." (RL)

Examines the promise of teaching literature by attending to the process of reading, not the products of literary interpretation, analysis, and explication. (RL)

Describes a study guide to help students read short stories, essays, novels, drama, and poetry. (AEA)

Examples of comprehension activities are presented in the areas of: context clues, literal comprehension, recall of details, main ideas, maps and charts, interpretive comprehension, sequence, and evaluative comprehension. This article is one of four in this issue comprising the Teacher's Reading Seminar 1979. (SJL)

Reviews 11 recent texts, supplements, kits, and professional references for reading comprehension and/or critical reading at various grade levels. (SJL)

Two experiments were conducted exploring the effects of imagery and text organization on what is learned from reading a passage. Some of the results were that imagery was more successful for learning than repetition and that randomized text resulted in the poorest comprehension. (MKM)

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)

Defines subjective criticism as reader response or reader criticism and emphasizes the need for students in two-year colleges to read and experience literature. (MKM)

Presents current definitions of critical reading and discusses related research on testing and instruction in the skills that improve critical reading. (MAI)

Describes a reading instruction technique designed to stimulate spontaneous verbal interaction through a problem solving task. The technique is suggested for content area reading. (MKM)

Advocates getting students to adopt a questioning approach to all writing, concentrating on writing effectiveness. Suggests some assignments that should develop such critical thinking skills. (RL)

Describes a method for teaching reading of research literature that helps students develop confidence and understanding. Basic steps of the modified KENSHU method are divide a scientific article into sections, try to define the purpose of the article, its significance, and applications, prepare a one-page summary with key graphs and tables, and…

With its 50th anniversary series, the Great Books Foundation renews its partnership with public libraries to reach a new generation of readers through shared inquiry. Describes the beginnings of the Great Books movement, its influence on race and politics, the role of libraries, and the 50th Anniversary Series, which is, in part, a response to the…