Reading Matters

For developmental students who have progressed beyond the comprehension basics, this high-level reader focuses on reading flexibility and how to analyze different genres of writing. Students adapt how they read to each selection, learning different strategies for textbooks, magazines, newspapers, and other genres. After a basic review of comprehension and critical-reading skills, the text introduces four units of thematically linked readings. Each reading is accompanied by a description of its specific features and some appropriate responses to those features. For instance, a textbook selection with complicated syntax and multi-syllabic words might require a reduced reading rate, a double reading, careful underlining, and marginal annotations. Readings that center on two or three related issues encourage students to develop informed opinions--allowing them to shape and revise their opinions as they receive, evaluate, and synthesize opposing points of view. Multiple-choice questions help students understand each author's explanation or argument. Later, open-ended questions ask students to compare and contrast differing points of view, and ultimately draw their own conclusions. Consistent vocabulary instruction appears throughout the text. Discussion questions and writing assignments have been carefully designed to help students become more aware of issues such as the influence of the media, the consequences of 9/11, the workings of memory, and the limits of civil liberties.Flemming, Laraine is the author of 'Reading Matters ' with ISBN 9780618256617 and ISBN 061825661X.