Reading with Confidence

By Joan Monahan and Monahan

With particular emphasis on helping readers hone their critical thinking skills, this book presents more exercise work than comparable books to help develop college-level reading skills and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0205283292
• ISBN13: 9780205283293
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Pearson
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Life after Langan for TASP, CLAST and skills-based courses

Dr. Monahan gives upper-level developmental reading instructors a refreshing new choice in texts by interweaving three books into one and providing support with creative teaching strategies. The resulting book saves preparation time, engages interest by avoiding a repetitious format and prepares students for success across-the-curriculum.First, instructors constrained by state-mandated exit exams, like those in Texas and Florida, will be delighted to find ample coverage of ALL the dozen skills included in such tests. Copious shorter exercises on each skill precede a pair of longer readings whose comprehension questions reinforce new skills along with those previously introduced. The book ends with five longer passages, each with cumulative exercises. In addition, the publisher affords further practice for all skills on its gradable website or in a reproduceable test bank.Next, the author includes three chapters on basic techniques for improving reading, study and test-taking skills. These units comprise a short but effective course in study skills. Several of the readings will inspire students to set higher goals for themselves; others give practical advice on mastering the complexities of college reading matter.Most important, interspersed throughout the chapters are several types of critical thinking questions. Some are analytical reasoning problems: completing analogies, reordering scrambled passages, separating cause and effect, ranking items in sequential order and creating or interpreting diagrams. Monahan phrases other exercises as short-answer questions about the readings. Finally, the text concludes with a pair of readings from opposing viewpoints, asking students to summarize and evaluate the evidence and arguments in each. Monahan includes a library project, complete with suggested topics, that directs students to do the same for a pair of contrasting articles of their choice.As for approach, Monahan allows instructors freedom to select the teaching style that works best for them. While the course may be organized as a lecture class with individual lab work, the text and teacher's manual provide helpful strategies on collaborative activites that increase student participation and develop social skills. The longer, written assignments can be used for portfolio assessment. I would have liked more references to technology. Monahan's book contains only one article on the Internet and no websites related to the readings. Also, I hope the publisher will expand its website with more skill reinforcement and library projects and create a test bank with exercises different from those on the current website and covering more than just the reading skills. A future edition would benefit from a more detailed presentation of phonetic pronunciation and graphic organizers.However, the virtues of Monahan's text far outweigh these shortcomings. In addition to variety of content and flexibility in presen