Ten Steps to Improving College Reading Skills

DescriptionOften imitated but never equaled, Ten Steps to Improving College Reading Skills remains the best-selling reading textbook on the developmental college market. It is also the most popular book in the Ten Steps college reading series—the choice for the core development reading course at many schools.Key Features of the Ten Steps Series• Focus on the Basics. The book seeks to explain, in an extremely clear, step-by-step way, the essential elements of each skill. Many examples are provided to ensure that students understand each point. In general, the focus is on teaching the skills—not just on explaining them and not just on testing them.• Frequent practice and feedback. In the belief that progress is made largely through abundant practice and careful feedback, this book includes numerous activities. Students can get immediate feedback on the practice exercises in Part One by turning to the limited answer key at the back of the book. The answers to the review and mastery tests in Part One, the reading questions in Part Two, and the combined-skills tests in Part Three are in the Instructor’s Manual. The limited answer key increases the active role that students take in their own learning. Also, they are likely to use the answer key in an honest and positive way if they know they will be tested on the many activities and selections for which answers are not provided. (Answers not in the book can be easily copied from the Instructor’s Edition or the Instructor’s Manual and passed out at the teacher’s discretion.)• High interest level. Dull and unvaried readings and exercises work against learning. Students need to experience genuine interest and enjoyment in what they read. Teachers as well should be able to take pleasure in the selections, for their own good feeling about them can carry over favorably into class work. The readings in the book, then, have been chosen not only for the appropriateness of their reading level but also for their compelling content. They should appeal to a wide range of students—developmental students, students for whom English is a second language, and Adult Basic Education students. They also take into account the diverse backgrounds of such students.• Ease of use. The logical sequence in each chapter—from explanation to example to practice to review tests to mastery tests—helps make the skills easy to teach. The book’s organization into distinct parts also makes for ease of use. Within a single class, for instance, instructors can work on a particular skill in Part One, review another skill with a mastery test, and provide variety by having students read one of the selections in Part Two. The limited answer key at the back of the book also makes for versatility: it means that the instructor can assign parts of each chapter for self-teaching. Finally, the mastery tests—each on its own tear-out page—and the combined-skills tests make it a simple matter for a teacher to test and evaluate student progress.• Integration of skills. Students do more than learn the skills individually in Part One. They also learn to apply the skills together through the reading selections in Parts One and Two, as well as the combined-skills tests in Part Three. They become effective readers and thinkers by means of a good deal of practice in applying a combination of skills.• Online exercises. As they complete each skills chapter, students are invited to go online to the Townsend Press website to work on two additional practice exercises that reinforce what has been taught in the chapter.• Thinking activities. Thinking activities—in the form of outlining, mapping, and summarizing—are a distinctive feature of the book. In addition, four discussion questions at the end of each reading selection encourage student reflection, as do the writing activities that are provided for each selection.Changes in the Sixth Edition• Enhanced Visuals. Because so many students today are visual learners, numerous cartoons and other graphics have been added to help introduce or illustrate points made in the book.• Clarity and Friendliness. Exceptional clarity has always been a hallmark of John Langan’s books—in the step-by-step explanations for each skill, in the logically sequenced materials, and even in the care given to the questions and answer choices in the activities. Countless numbers of teachers have praised the friendly and helpful tone of John Langan’s books—a tone that never condescends to students. This revised book is no exception. In addition, the human content of the paragraphs and longer selections will definitely appeal to you and your students.• Fresh Materials. The book includes four new high-interest readings, and practice materials have been freshened throughout.• Integrated online resources. Through the use of TP's acclaimed Learning Center, Ten Steps to Improving College Reading Skills, 2/e, features powerful online components to enhanced learning, including: 1 Web-based instructional videos. The Learning Center hosts hands-on video lessons which provide students with introductions to each of the ten chapters in Part One. 2 Online practice exercises and mastery tests. Each chapter of the book is supported by additional practice exercises and online versions of the book's mastery tests. These materials can be used to reinforce skills taught in the chapter or to assess students' learning. 3 Helpful PowerPoint files. A comprehensive collection of PowerPoint files covering the book's ten key chapters is available for immediate downloading. 4 Downloadable supplements. Electronic (PDF) versions of the instructor's manual and test bank can be downloaded directly from the Learning Center. These files give you the resources you need whenever and wherever you are—24 hours a day. 5 Integrated eBooks (coming soon). Complete eBooks of the instructor's edition of this and all new Ten Steps books will be available in the Learning Center in 2014. 6 Class management controls. The Learning Center allows you to control which assignments and tests your students can access. It also allows you to create unique assignments for each class you teach, track students’ progress, and simplify grading. To learn more, e-mail cs@townsendpress.com or visit the Learning Center now at www.townsendpress.net.• Superior Price and Service. This new edition will sell for a net price of $29. College bookstores then typically add 33% for their profit. No competing publisher matches the prices of TP books. Our goal has always been to provide the highest possible quality at the lowest possible price. If you have ever e-mailed or called us, you know we respond to you right away. And orders, including desk copy requests, are typically shipped out on the same day that we receive them. We pride ourselves on prompt, personal service that no competitor can match.Table of ContentsPreface: To the InstructorIntroduction 1 How to Become a Better Reader and Thinker 2 Reading for Pleasure and Power 3 Some Quick Study TipsPART ONETen Steps to Improving College Reading Skills1 Vocabulary in Context Reading: Night Watch Roy Popkin Mastery Tests2 Main Ideas Reading: Here’s to Your Health Joan Dunayer Mastery Tests3 Supporting Details Reading: Child-Rearing Styles Diane E. Papalia and Sally Wendkos Olds Mastery Tests4 Implied Main Ideas Reading: Rowing the Bus Paul Logan Mastery Tests5 Relationships I Reading: Wonder in the Air Jeff Gammage Mastery Tests6 Relationships II Reading: Students in Shock John Kellmayer and Alina Wyden Mastery Tests7 Inferences Reading: Gender Inequality in the 21st Century James M. Henslin Mastery Tests8 Purpose and Tone Reading: The Scholarship Jacket Marta Salinas Mastery Tests9 Argument Reading: In Praise of the F Word Mary Sherry Mastery Tests10 Critical Reading Reading: The 2,000-Year-Old Wonder Drug David B. Angus Mastery TestsPART TWOTen Reading Selections1The Yellow Ribbon Pete Hamill2College Athletes Should be Paid Ann Kaufman3Shame Dick Gregory4The Bystander Effect Dorothy Barkin5Growing Less Dumb Eileen Brenoff6Coping with Nervousness Rudolph F. Verderber7Compliance Techniques: Getting People to Say Yes Shelley E. Taylor, Letitia Anne Peplau, and David O. Sears8Lizzie Borden James Kirby Martin and others9Nonverbal Communication Anthony F. Grasha10The Power Within John LanganPART THREERelationships and Combined-Skills Tests1 Relationships Tests 2 Combined Skill TestsAppendixes Pronunciation Guide Writing Assignments Limited Answer KeyThe Ten Steps Reading Series and the Common Core State StandardsLooking for a powerful, effective, Common Core-aligned resource to help you teach reading to your students? With the Ten Steps Series, you’ve got it. For more than two decades, the Ten Steps Series has helped millions of students learn the reading skills needed for success in the classroom and beyond. Developed to prepare college students for the rigors of college-level reading courses, the Ten Steps Series addresses the competencies and benchmarks outlined in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for grades 6–12.The connection between the Common Core and the Ten Steps Series emerges from their shared educational fundamentals. Both draw from practical classroom experience and research in the field of reading. Both focus on the same goal: to empower students to be strong, active, and critical readers. And both, in an effort to achieve this goal, outline a series of foundational skills students need to master. The Ten Steps Series goes one step further; it teaches these skills with a range of print-based and online practice exercises, assignments, readings, and mastery tests. The result has been a hugely successful series of books that have helped millions of college students transition from developmental reading courses into the advanced classes they need for degrees. This same trajectory of success is available now to middle and high school students.Every one of the six books in the Ten Steps Series covers the CCSS Anchor Standards for Grades 6–12 in the following categories: Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, and Language.In addition, all of the books in the Ten Steps Series also fulfill key CCSS benchmarks for the specific grade levels they span. The downloadable Ten Steps Series CCSS Grade-Level Analysis lists the specific CCSS benchmarks, by grade, covered in each of the Ten Steps books.Supplementary MaterialsTen Steps to Improving College Reading Skills, 6/e, includes the following supplements:• An Instructor’s Edition. This full-length text is identical to the student edition except that it contains hints for teachers, answers to all the book's practice and test items, and explanations for most answers. No other book on the market has such detailed and helpful annotations.• A combined Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank. This valuable supplement includes a model syllabus, readability levels for the book's reading selections, and suggestions for teaching with the text. The Test Bank also contains four additional mastery tests for the skills chapters in Part One—all on letter-sized sheets so they can be copied easily for use with students.•The Learning Center. A powerful web-based resource, the Learning Center features assignments, tests, PowerPoint files, and an electronic (PDF) edition of the Instructor's Manual and Test Bank to accompany this book.  Along with these materials, the Learning Center allows instructors to assign online activities, monitor students' progress, and record their work electronically. Print supplements can be obtained quickly by calling Townsend Press toll-free at (800) 772-6410, by sending a fax on school letterhead to 1-800-225-8894, or by e-mailing Customer Service at cs@townsendpress.com.