Joining a Community of Readers: A Thematic Approach to Reading

A contemporary thematic reader, Joining a Community of Readers offers a holistic approach to developing reading skills and building schema. Joining a Community of Readers maintains a constant focus on key skills while providing ample practice with shorter and longer readings. The real-life context for skill instruction engages students as they are able to stay with a single theme throughout each instructive unit. The authors' PRO reading strategy (Prepare to Read, Read Actively and Reflect, and Organize to learn) places an emphasis on pre-reading, active reading, and post-reading activities throughout the text and gets students applying the skills in the context of the reading process. Significant attention is especially given to vocabulary skills and finding the main idea and support.

Dr. Roberta Alexander is Professor Emeritus at San Diego City College. She has taught Reading, Composition, Literature, Chicano Studies and Black Studies as well as English as a Second Language courses for the San Diego Community College District since 1974. Formerly the Department Chair of English, Chair of Chairs and Academic Senate President, she now focuses on teaching and writing and is the author of a series of college reading textbooks. Dr. Alexander earned her BA in Spanish Literature from University of California, Berkeley and her PhD in Comparative Literature from University of California, San Diego.