Recent literary practices such as surface reading or the digital humanities have challenged the centrality of close reading in literary studies. Nonetheless, reading literature still involves sustained and productive attentiveness to texts. Fostering this skill, however, can seem increasingly difficult. From paper mills, to SparkNotes, to blogs…

This program profile describes an initiative to meet the college reading and writing requirement for undergraduate students in a premedical program at St. George's University (SGU) in Grenada, West Indies. Two courses were developed in response to concerns that the existing curriculum was not meeting the specific needs of premedical students. The…

Describes an eight-day high-intensity speed reading course offered in a high school as an alternative to classroom reading instruction. (SR)

As a direct result of the passage of the America Reads Challenge Act in 1997, Mt. Mercy College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has developed a reading tutor program. The program includes a college credit course and on-site visits by college faculty supervising student tutors. This article includes the rationale for development of a credit course for reading…

A course in reading and learning techniques was designed for returning students at the Indiana University/Purdue University campus at Fort Wayne, Indiana. The first part of the course concerns study skills such as listening and notetaking, text reading, test taking, time management, and vocabulary development. An individualized segment of the…

To meet the needs of educationally disadvantaged college freshmen, a developmental reading program that emphasized student-generated questioning techniques was implemented at Manhattanville College (New York). The program was intended to help students comprehend and recall information from different subject areas and to organize complex topics…

This program, included in "Effective Reading Programs...," serves 250 students a year at a small-town junior college. The first- and second-year college students, primarily white, are from families earning between $6,000 and $15,000 annually. The program began in 1964 and offers two elective college reading courses that are open to…

The need for greater diversity in the United States teaching workforce continues to increase as the numbers of teachers of color graduating from colleges of education remain low. This paper considers the current need for more minority teachers, as well as the theoretical framework and primary design of a learning community project between a…

Noting the importance of a relaxed atmosphere, the availability of all kinds of reading materials, and an unpressured, out-in-the-open approach to measuring student progress, this paper describes the activities and resources that constitute a successful high school reading program. The discussion focuses on the types of books, diagnosis,…

Describes a sustained silent reading program in a 9th-grade reading class of 60 students, most of them at-risk students. Finds that, on average, students improved 3.9 grade levels in their reading. (SR)

A year-long study designed to create a high school English course entitled "Guided Literature" is described in this report. The described course was intended to provide literature instruction for nonmotivated poor readers at the eleventh and twelfth grade levels, and was structured so that students could read materials they found…

There is a need for reading instruction at the college level because (1) no matter how much reading instruction a student has had, he or she can benefit from more; (2) it is not until college that some students realize how important reading is; and (3) many students make it to college who are still poor readers. A successful developmental reading…

A project designed to train paraprofessional personnel (technicians) who could materially assist elementary classroom teachers in working with atypical readers is reported in two separate sections. The first section, titled "Highlights of the Reading Teaching Technician Project," describes the background, operation, dissemination, and…