In this course, you will learn how to integrate research-based reading, writing, thinking, listening, and reflection strategies on reading comprehension into your own classroom. Students and teachers in today's classrooms face an overwhelming amount of informational material in increasingly complex forms. For middle school students, and older struggling readers, making and gaining meaning from text is a complex and challenging task. This course is designed to promote an understanding of how to improve reading in the content areas, through assessing students' reading comprehension, analyzing text factors, building students' vocabulary and background knowledge, and teaching strategies for active and reflective reading. Other factors, such as fluency, attention, and motivation will also be examined within the sessions of the course.

You will learn how proven strategies, developed by literacy experts, can help students achieve deeper understanding of disciplinary concepts, skills, and vocabulary. During this course you will test and refine a variety of research-based strategies for reading, writing, thinking, listening, and reflection, as well as gain an understanding of how to integrate concepts and strategies from this course into your classroom. The cumulative product from this course will be a polished lesson plan to promote comprehension for older learners. You will post your lesson plan to the course website, and you will be able to view and download the lesson plans developed by your classmates.

The core questions we will be answering in this course include:

• How can we help readers improve their understanding of disciplinary concepts, skills, and vocabulary?
• How can we teach them how to make and gain meaning from a text, be it a textbook, a novel, or a website?