Cognitive Strategy Instruction That Really Improves Children's Academic Performance Book

Cognitive strategy instruction consists of teaching students procedures that may take some time to master but are worth acquiring because they reflect the processes that people who are good at academic tasks routinely employ. It is highly appropriate for normal learners, especially inner city and minority children. Cognitive strategy instruction is definitely not a "quick fix" for students with academic learning problems. Nor is it an add-on, taught alone. Strategies are most powerful when used in the context of content teaching, coordinated with a well-developed knowledge base, and routinely included in the ongoing instruction. This completely rewritten and updated second edition presents the strategies empirically shown to improve competence in the academic skill and content areas--decoding, reading comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, writing, science and mathematics--for elementary and middle schools. The expanded coverage includes a new chapter on strategies related to teaching science and strategies to learn specific, often unconnected facts. Each chapter succinctly indicates the current understandings in the area, demonstrating the logic behind teaching strategies for that area. It then presents the validated strategies and how to teach them, with references for the teacher who wants more information. A final chapter, Getting Started Teaching Strategies, offers specific suggestions for teachers to follow in teaching and supporting strategies among their students.Read More