True Integration: Seeing Reading and
Writing in Two Mirrors Through A
Content-Based Approach
JILANI WARSI & DAVID ROTHMAN
QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Reading
2
Variety of Reading Genres
Articles/Blogs/Fiction/Memoir
Discipline Specific Vocabulary
Determining Meaning from Context
Identifying Main Ideas/Supporting Details
Making Annotations
Highlighting
Re-reading
Comprehension Questions
Graphic Analysis
Thinking: Reflecting on Text
3
 Critical thinking discussion questions
 Outlining key ideas
 Formulating questions about the reading
 Debates
 Panel discussions
 Considering author’s bias
 Always questioning the basic premise of claims
An Intellectual Journey: Academic Disciplines
4
 Psychology: Can human behavior be changed?
 Criminal Justice: Do the police “protect and serve” us?
 Environmental Science: How can we best preserve all forms of
life on earth?
 Business: Can business and ethics co-exist?
 Sociology: Are men and women truly different in any
significant way?
Writing: Responding to Text
5
Free Writing
Response Writing through Blogging
Summary Writing
Formal Essay Writing
Incorporating Appropriate Patterns of Organization
Substantiating Claims with Evidence
Coherence and Cohesion in Body Paragraphs
The Art of Revising and Editing
The Reading Process
6
 Entering a Reading
Active Reading: Highlighting and Annotation
Focus and Motivation
Re-Reading to repair miscomprehension
The Writing Process
7
 Pre-Writing: Notes and Outlining
 First Draft: From Paragraph to Essay
Peer Review
Responding to Feedback: Revising and Editing
Traditional vs. True Integration
8
Traditional
 Skill-based approach
 Disjointed chapter
readings targeting
college reading
skills
 In most cases, writing
not fully integrated
with chapter readings
True Integration
 Content-based journey
thematically organized
 All chapter readings
focused around academic
disciplines
 Higher order thinking
activities to reflect on
readings
 Various response writing
assignments integrated
with discipline-specific
readings