Ten Steps to Advancing College Reading Skills Reading Level 9-13 (Paperback, 2003) 4th EDITION

by John Langan

Ten Steps to Advancing College Reading Reading 9-13 4th EDITION by John Langan. Townsend Pr,2003

Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Langan series of textbooks, which include Ten Steps to Building College Reading Skills, Ten Steps to Improving College Reading Skills, and Ten Steps to Advancing College Reading Skills is a solid approach for developmental students in need of improving their college-level reading skills. I used various levels in this series in ESL reading classes I taught a number of times over the past decade.

The formula is simple: in order to improve, students need targeted work on ten key skills such as learning vocabulary from context or making inferences. Each chapter provides guided readings and copious exercises so that students can learn while reading.

The main criticism I have of this series is it's too neat -- a "training wheels" approach to reading. Many of the exercises are rather formulaic, reducing a complex task to a misleadingly simple multiple-choice format. However, I can also admit that this approach gives developmental students a feeling of accomplishment. Another problem, though, is that students weary of the endless procession of guided exercise, then practice tests, and then mastery tests. Many begin to simply skim for the answer rather than read, which, I suppose, might also be working on a valuable reading skill, but it is not really the point of some of the exercises at all.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice resource for our middle school teachers to use to introduce critical reading.