The Right Skills
Comprehensive coverage of fundamental reading skills. From learning vocabulary to understanding a writer's point to practicing critical reading, Making It Work uses clear, concise, friendly instruction to teach step-by-step the discrete skills and strategies that prepare students for successful reading in college and in life.
Multi-varied exercises offer constant reinforcement. Abundant practice activities isolate particular skills and give students a chance to succeed at simpler tasks before moving on to more complex ones. These exercises, on perforated pages, can be used for self-study and practice or can be submitted to instructors as homework. Additional interactive online quizzes are available on the book's companion website.
Critical thinking activities keep students involved. Chapter Introductions and Focusing Questions at the beginning of every chapter get students thinking about their own learning. Everyday Reading boxes follow, inviting students to tie their in-class experience to their out-of-class lives. Every chapter then concludes with a series of review activities that help reinforce what students have learned.
Standardized-test practice in the context of real readings. Uniquely placed within each "Reading the Parts" essay section, 15 questions -- designed to resemble the kinds of questions asked on standardized tests -- allow students to practice for state-wide or school-wide exams while they engage with high-interest readings.
Writing activities encourage further application of reading skills. Connecting Reading to Writing sections wrap up each chapter with brief writing suggestions that invite students to think about reading from a writer's perspective, broadening their understanding of what they read.
The Right Approach
A unique method transforms independent skills into whole-reading proficiency. Like traditional reading textbooks, the chapters in Putting It Together and Making It Work break reading into its component skills. However, unlike other books, Putting It Together and Making It Work provide in each chapter an innovative set of exciting topical readings and questions that teach students how to use those component skills together to read whole works successfully.
Reading the Parts sections present an engaging reading, divided into manageable two to three-paragraph parts. Each part is followed by five practice questions referring specifically back to those paragraphs. By reading the parts, students are able to successfully work their way through a whole essay bit by bit, practicing their skills and receiving constant reinforcement throughout.
Reading the Whole sections re-assemble the Reading the Parts readings and reprint them in their entirety. Students then re-read with a higher level of confidence and success, putting all their skills together on a whole reading. Integrated Skills questions follow, encouraging students to draw on all their newly learned skills at once.
Reading Textbooks sections guide students into academic texts. Every chapter features textbook passages that provide students with an opportunity to apply their newly acquired abilities to the kinds of reading they will encounter throughout college. Drawn from a variety of disciplines -- psychology, sociology, biology, and economics, for example -- these textbook passages are thematically connected to other readings in the chapter and offer a broad range of interesting topics to prepare students more thoroughly for their other courses.
Reading the Web screen shots expand student skills for today's world. Thematically linked to the chapter's other readings, the screen shots do more than provide opportunities for students to practice transferring their skills to different genres. Taken from government resources, personal pages, and even a popular band's official fan site, these screen shots also help to illustrate that reading skills are important in every aspect of students' lives.
The Right Readings
Current, high-interest essays actually engage students in reading. All of the non-textbook readings are drawn from contemporary sources such as newspaper editorial pages, student publications, and magazines like Time and Newsweek. On today's most compelling topics -- sports, immigration, and gun violence, for example -- these essays channel student interest into the practice of reading. Appropriate to students' ability (according to readability tests), the essays are nonetheless exciting, engaging, and respectful of students' intelligence.
Thematic links to textbook readings motivate students to read. Textbook passages are selected for their direct topical connection to other essays in each chapter. Explicit Thematic Connections beginning each passage ask students to consider the relevance of the reading to the topics that interest them -- and show how college reading can apply to their lives. An Iranian-American woman's description of a misunderstanding with her Iranian cousin, for example, is paired with an interpersonal communication passage that puts the author's personal experience into its fascinating theoretical context.
A mini-anthology of essays provides additional reading practice. Taken from recent books and periodicals, these ten selections cover subjects that will actually get students reading by capturing their interest. Each essay is followed by Integrated Skills questions that help reinforce students' learning by combining their skills on a whole reading.