Publisher's Synopsis
Reading from the Inside Out teaches traditional reading skills within the context of thematically arranged readings, using a new focus: the reading process as interaction between the reader and writers.
This unique focus encourages students to consider their own feelings and ideas about what a writer is saying, so that reading becomes a space for self-discovery as well as for gaining information. The text also fosters metacognitive processes, since students monitor their own thinking as they move from purely personal reactions to more objective analysis.
This progress comes from learning a sequence of reading strategies-starting with ways of connecting to the writer's ideas, and then moving through a logical but flexible progression for comprehending, interpreting, and analyzing the ideas in a reading. Students are shown how strategies build on one another, so that they incorporate what they've already practiced along with each new strategy. They learn how to combine strategies and how to choose appropriate strategies for a specific reading.
Each strategy is introduced in a way to find meaning in a complete reading on a theme. This integration of instruction with thematically linked readings increases students' interest and motivation for learning strategies. Instructors are given several choices of readings to assign for practice, with many readings linked to more than one theme. In addition to comprehension questions and vocabulary exercises for each reading, writing activities help students refine their thinking about a reading. Collaborative activities for each reading also help students develop the connection between reading, thinking, talking, and writing.
