Enhancing Learning in the Content Areas by Incorporating Reading Strategies

Abstract

Within the past decade, there has been a major push by the United States government to make sure that every student performs at an average or high level of academic achievement. A new focus has been placed on reading, especially on expository reading. It can be a difficult task for content-area teachers to know what reading strategies are necessary to promote higher level thinking within the reading process. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to create a resource guide for content-area educators without reading backgrounds on ways to infuse reading strategies and reading resources into their curriculum. This project was meant to be an easily accessible product that would contain a compilation of effective, research-based methods from a variety of sources. The guiding questions were used as a framework for the presentation of the material. The National Reading Panel's study on teaching children to read was utilized as criteria for the selection of activities placed in the resource guide. Within the resource guide, there are different sections that address the needs for vocabulary development; comprehension before, during, and after reading; and a list of trade books that may be useful for the content-area science teacher. By following this guidebook, content-area teachers can utilize effective strategies for improving expository reading skills in their students.