Perspectives

Inspiring students to take a critical and multifaceted approach to reading, Perspectives combines skills instruction and authentic academic content to prepare learners for the demands of post-secondary education. In Part I of the text, a careful and thorough handling of reading skills and strategies-such as annotating text, managing difficult vocabulary, assessing inferences, distinguishing between facts and opinions, and evaluating techniques of persuasion-establishes a foundation from which students can analyze and synthesize information. Explicit instruction is combined with activities, in the form of sentences, paragraphs, and short passages, giving students the opportunity to practise the skills and strategies immediately. Part II comprises eight stand-alone reading units, each with three readings selections from a different disciplinary perspective. These readings expose students to more than twenty academic disciplines, including sociology, environmental studies, mechanical engineering, business, and biology, within themed units that range from "Maintaining Law and Order" to "Living with Nature" to "Culture." Each reading is followed by a variety of questions and activities to test students' comprehension and fundamental reading skills. The reading units end with an opportunity for reflection and synthesis, where students exercise more cognitively demanding reading skills, thinking critically about information related to all three readings in that unit. A thought-provoking, practical, and versatile resource, Perspectives affords students the tools required to take on their academic reading with confidence.