This paper responds to the complaints of several content area teachers that their students are not reading on grade level, and therefore are not able to engage in classroom activities. The paper is divided into two sections: the first section discusses research, effective instructional strategies, and steps to remedy the problem for working with low-level reading ability students in content area classes; and the second section discusses the special reading skills needed for content area subjects and provides lesson plans for teachers to work more effectively in helping at-risk students become more successfully engaged in classroom activities. The paper contains many illustrations of suggested activities for high school language arts and social studies classes. Contains 12 references. (NKA)