Comprehending Content

Teachers of adolescents are under enormous pressure to cover more content in their disciplines, to make instruction more relevant to students, and to help students acquire the reading skills they need to succeed on standardised tests and beyond.

In this DVD set, high school teacher Cris Tovani brings viewers into her school and classroom and shows how she and her colleagues are meeting the challenge of improving students' reading skills across the curriculum.

The DVDs demonstrate Cris working with students using texts from different disciplines as well as collaborating with colleagues throughout the school.

1. Modeling What Good Readers Do
   Using examples from technical text and novels, Cris models her own reading process to show students how to read and understand difficult material.
2. Interpreting Data: Charts, Graphs, Standardised Tests
   Cris works with students as they analyse charts, data and graphs, and discusses how standardised test scores led her to place more emphasis on data reading across the curriculum.
3. Reading Like a Mathematician
   Cris and math teacher Jim Donohue co-teach, working with struggling readers on strategies for completing math problems, and talk about their collaboration.
4. Synthesising Complex Ideas
   Cris assists students as they integrate reading from history textbooks with current articles in newspapers and magazines. Students synthesise background knowledge and new information to understand wars from the last seventy years.

Accompanying the Comprehending Content DVDs is a detailed viewing guide with sample workshop activities, reading materials used by students on the discs, focus questions for viewing, and tips for using the related book, Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? (optional: available separately) in a study group setting.