Gloss, or marginal notations in a text, and other similar techniques can be used by reading specialists both as they attempt to develop meaningful content area reading programs and as they review what is already known before attempting to learn new information. For example, several social studies teachers began their gloss activities by instructing students to make a list of important ideas they had or facts they already knew about a particular topic. Other teachers wrote gloss activities, designed to assist students, that identified sections of text where new ideas were introduced and where rereading and reorganizing appeared to be required. Also, teachers have made use of gloss activities to direct students to go back to a section of text and reread or to note a concept that would be important when the next section in the text was read. Writing marginal glosses and discussing the research ideas and insights that can be associated with them appears to be one way of working with teachers and their texts in a public school setting. The gloss concept is comprehensive enough to include many approaches and ideas related to effective reading and studying; teachers seem to accept it as a credible technique that requires much work and effort on the part of both the teacher and the students. (HOD)