Reading in the Academic Environment

by Mary L. Dillard

For courses in College Reading and Academic Literacy.Reading in the Academic Environment provides teacher modeling and guided practice in content-area textbook reading. It teaches comprehension as a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0130414689
• ISBN13: 9780130414687
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Length: 486 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Review - READING IN THE ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT

Dr Mary L Dillard's READING IN THE ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT is a much needed "state of the art" text in developmental reading at the college level. Comprehension is the emphatic goal of all activities and exercises from pre-reading through post-reading. The student is systematically guided in bringing prior knowledge to reading, building new skills, and reaching beyond the content area materials to sources which will foster continued learning and a "Mind Revolution." Vocabulary skills encourage metacognitive awareness by the student and questioning goes well beyond the literal level to inferential and experiential based inquiries. At all times, the development of language is employed to make the student comfortable in the understanding and utilization of new ideas, particularly the ability to actively formulate ones own multilevel quesions. Expect the solid and standard skill building exercises as well as creative new activities extending further,such as reciprocal teaching, drawing to illustrate word meanings, library and periodical references, internet resources, and bibliographic citations for books to read to children. The index is concise and useful; it includes, for example, the page numbers where the "reading to a child" resources may be found. The Study Skills taught are well selected and presented, and include: SQ4R and modified SQ4R; Overview; Study Plan; Memory; Annotation; Highlighting or Underlining; Visual Maps; Collaborative Learning; and Learning Communities and Supplemental Instruction. After this course, a student should know how to set up a study group and get the most out of it. One of the strengths of Dr Dillard's book is her inclusion of actual college textbook chapters (and supplemental chapters written at the college level) as working material. Exercises are tailored to this material, which is relevant to the university student and of high interest to an ethnically diverse population. Chapters on Computers, Psychology, Sociology, Environmental Geology, Linguistics, Cultural Studies, American History, Anthropology and Sociology, West African Literature, Music, American English, Religious Studies, and Physical Education should dovetail nicely with subject matter and textual material in the regular college curriculum. In addition, the Appendix provides alternate teaching plans for all chapters. The work sheets in Appendix C (Extended Reading Activities Forms) are gold nuggets buried at the back of the book and include: Weekly Reading Report; Content Area REport; Weekly Vocabulary Journal; Weekly Magazines/Journals/Newspapers Reading Report; Reading In Your Major Journal Report; and Fiction Report. READING IN THE ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT is an excellent text; the most useful and relevant text in the subject area to date. The book is designed to be used with college developmental reading classes. However, it would be equally valuable as a teacher training tool in content area reading. In addition, a highly motivated student co