Northwest Regional Comprehensive Center

The Center on Instruction's new publication provides research-based guidance on academic literacy instruction in the content areas, specifically focusing on the effective use of text in content areas. The paper reviews the research evidence about content-area literacy instruction for adolescents and suggests ways teachers can use content-area texts to enable students to understand subject-specific vocabulary and concepts. This document also provides a brief synopsis of working with adult learners and the most promising professional development practices identified in research.