CHAPTER X


 READING IN SPECIFIC SUBJECT MATTER AREAS


 The curriculum of adult basic education is built around three
broad areas. These are: (1) The communications skills of reading,
writing, speaking, listening, and spelling. (2) The mathematical
skills as needed for general adult problems such as consumer educa-
tion, family budgeting and vocational training, and (3) General knowl-
edge such as citizenship education, general scientific concepts and
social problems.

 Insofar as reading is used as a tool for learning within his
subject matter area, every teacher is a reading teacher. Every teacher
bears some responsibility for developing the reading power and skills
of his students. There are some general study-type reading skills
which should be developed in the reading and communication skills
classes. However, the development of subject area vocabulary and sub-
ject area reading skills is most effectively carried on in teaching
sessions dealing with the specific subjects.

 There is a core of general reading skills needed in all subject
matter reading. Among these are the ability to find the main idea,
the ability to organize ideas, the ability to interpret information,
the ability to draw conclusions and make inferences, and the ability
to recognize and utilize rhetorical devices. These general reading
skills need to be supplemented in the subject matter areas with the
specific demands made by each area.

 1. Teach students the SQ3R1 study method.

 2. Encourage students to work out rigid study procedures,
 including time, place and subject to be studied.

 3. Require the students to outline one of your lectures,
 wait a time period of approximately two weeks, have the
 students bring in their notes on the aforementioned
 lecture, and spend 15 minutes reviewing these. Then
 administer a test on that particular lecture. For notes
 to be effective, the student must learn just how much
 he requires to bring back the content to him. His
 notes should be neither more than he needs, nor less.
 This procedure is worth doing several times.

 4. Encourage students to write summaries in the margins of
 their texts, discourage underlining. Underlining cuts
 down the leading or wide spaces between lines. The less
 leading in a book, the less legible and readable the
 material. Furthermore, in reviewing, the student who


 ISee Francis Robinson, Effective Study Habits (Harper).


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