"Interactions/Mosaic prepares students for university classes by fully integrating every aspect of student life. Based on 28 years of classroom-tested best practices, the new and revised content, fresh modern look, and new online component make this the perfect series for contemporary classrooms." (Publisher's Website)

CONTENTS:

Chapter 1 - New Challenges

Reading Selections:
Overpopulation Fuels Megacities, for Better or Worse, by Miki Knezevic
Go with the Flow: Adventure Travel’s Love-Hate Relationship with Climate Change, by Sean Gregory

Reading Skills and Strategies:
Reading without knowing every word
Reading information Finding the main idea of a reading Checking reading comprehension for correct facts from a reading

Critical Thinking Skills:
Interpreting cultural differences concerning meeting and greeting
Analyzing the title of a reading
Synthesizing group discussion and reporting on it
Synthesizing Internet content: Taking notes and presenting results Writing Tip: Using details to support your ideas

Vocabulary Building:
Understanding the meaning of words from context
Understanding compound words (with and without hyphenation)
Analyzing words with prefixes and suffixes Building new words with suffixes and prefixes
Identifying common phrases and idioms and their meanings
Focusing on words from the Academic Word List

Focus on Testing (TOEFL iBT): Analyzing points of contrast on tests (Reading: Two Different Styles of Democracy: A Personal Viewpoint)

Chapter 2 - Teamwork and Competition

Reading Selections:
Beckham: An Autobiography, by David Beckham and Tom Watt
Outward Bound, by Michael Schuman

Reading Skills and Strategies:
Reading without knowing every word
Scanning for numbers
Selecting the main idea of an article

Critical Thinking Skills:
Using a graphic organizer (chain of events diagram) to identify the sequence of events
Recognizing implied feelings
Taking a stand for or against a proposal
Synthesizing Internet content: Taking notes and presenting results
Writing Tip: Describing people by using adjectives

Vocabulary Building:
Figuring out idiomatic expressions and specialized items
Learning sports-related vocabulary
Inferring the meaning of words from context
Understanding metaphors
Using compound adjectives
Inferring meaning of words as synonyms or antonyms
Focusing on words from the Academic Word List

Focus on Testing (TOEFL iBT): Using strategies to correctly answer multiple-choice questions

Chapter 3 - Gender and Relationships

Reading Selections:
Being Beautiful or Handsome Is Easier Than You Think!, by Jeremy Nicholson
Jane Eyre (excerpts), by Charlotte Brontë

Reading Skills and Strategies:
Skimming for the general idea
Reading information
Scanning for words with a specific meaning
Presenting a formal reading of a scene from a story

Critical Thinking Skills:
Choosing one point of view over another and defending your choice
Making inferences about a relationship from dialogue
Synthesizing Internet content: Taking notes and presenting results
Summarizing a group opinion
Writing Tip: Writing down the key points of an article in a summary

Vocabulary Building:
Matching phrases to their meanings
Identifying words from the same family
Focusing on words from the Academic Word List
Reviewing vocabulary through pantomime

Focus on Testing (TOEFL iBT): Answering vocabulary questions on tests

Chapter 4 - Health and Leisure

Reading Selections:
Eat Like a Peasant, Feel Like a King, by Andrew Revkin
Here Come the Tourists!, by Deborah McLaren

Reading Skills and Strategies:
Using headings to preview a reading passage
Recalling information
Paraphrasing main ideas
Understanding and analyzing points of view
Distinguishing between fact and opinion
Reading charts for specific information

Critical Thinking Skills:
Using a graphic organizer (a continuum) to rank items
Taking a stand by agreeing or disagreeing
Analyzing points of view
Using a Venn diagram to compare answers from an interview
Reaching a group consensus and writing an opinion statement
Synthesizing Internet content: Taking notes and presenting results
Writing Tip: Structuring an argument to support an opinion

Vocabulary Building:
Getting meaning from context
Recognizing synonyms
Scanning for vocabulary
Focusing on words from the Academic Word List

Focus on Testing (TOEFL iBT): Analyzing compound words on vocabulary tests

Chapter 5 - High Tech, Low Tech

Reading Selections:
How Hybrid Cars Work, by HybridKingdom.com
Leapfrogging the Technology Gap, by Alexandra Samuel

Reading Skills and Strategies:
Skimming for the general idea
Scanning for an important word in context to increase your understanding
Identifying the pattern of organization in a reading
Outlining the specific details from a reading passage
Analyzing the main point (thesis) of the article

Critical Thinking Skills:
Filling out a chart for comparison
Comparing opinions
Choosing a favorite theme-related item and researching it Creating a study online
Interviewing and using a graphic organizer (Venn diagram) to compare answers
Synthesizing Internet content: Taking notes and presenting results
Writing Tip: Selecting strong examples to support a point of view

Vocabulary Building:
Inferring the meaning of expressions from context and vocabulary
Inferring the meaning of specialized terms
Understanding compound words
Analyzing compound adjectives with hyphens
Focusing on words from the Academic Word List

Focus on Testing (TOEFL iBT): Using a computer effectively on tests

Chapter 6 - Money Matters

Reading Selections:
Executive Takes a Chance on Pizza, Transforms Spain, by Stephen Wade
The Luncheon, by William Somerset Maugham

Reading Skills and Strategies:
Scanning for specific information
Checking comprehension with multiple choice questions
Identifying the setting, characters, and conflict in a narrative
Predicting events in a narrative
Using a timeline to recall the series of events in a plot

Critical Thinking Skills:
Comparing opinions
Synthesizing Internet content: Taking notes and presenting results
Analyzing the actions and outcomes of a situation and presenting an alternative solution through a skit
Solving problems related to the theme
Writing Tip: Making a cluster diagram to help organize ideas

Vocabulary Building:
Recognizing word families
Getting the meaning of words from context
Focusing on words from the Academic Word List

Focus on Testing (TOEFL iBT): Reading between the lines in reading comprehension tests

Chapter 7 - Remarkable Individuals

Reading Selections:
Confucius, 551 B.C.E. – 479 B.C.E., by Michael H. Hart
Courage Begins with One Voice, by Kerry Kennedy

Reading Skills and Strategies:
Skimming for the general idea
Identifying key terms
Previewing to determine organization
Identifying the voices in a reading

Critical Thinking Skills:
Supporting or disproving a general statement with facts
Expressing an opinion
Using a graphic organizer (a continuum) to rank leaders
Comparing ideas
Synthesizing Internet content: Taking notes and presenting results
Writing Tip: Using a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two topics

Vocabulary Building:
Figuring out meaning from structure clues: compound words, prefixes and suffixes
Forming new words from the same word family
Matching words to their definitions
Using expressive synonyms
Creating new words using noun suffixes
Focusing on words from the Academic Word List

Focus on Testing (TOEFL iBT): Understanding sentence-insertion questions on tests (Reading: The Most Dangerous Jobs in the U.S.)

Chapter 8 - Creativity

Reading Selections:
Pure Genius, by Michael Michalko
“I Don’t Do Nice,” by Jonathan Glancey

Reading Skills and Strategies:
Scanning for compound words
Recognizing nouns and verbs by definition and context
Inferring character from actions
Previewing an interview for organization and key ideas

Critical Thinking Skills:
Understanding the power of pictorial language
Summarizing group discussions and reporting them to the class
Synthesizing Internet content: Taking notes and presenting results
Writing Tip: Making a plan before beginning to describe an object or invention

Vocabulary Building:
Matching set phrases or expressions to their context
Guessing the meaning of words from structure and context
Focusing on words from the Academic Word List

Focus on Testing (TOEFL iBT): Thinking twice about tricky test questions

Chapter 9 - Human Behavior

Reading Selections:
Ethnocentrism, by John Friedl
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, by Ernest Hemingway

Reading Skills and Strategies:
Skimming for the main idea
Scanning for development of the main idea
Finding support for main ideas
Previewing for characters and plot Expressing the theme

Critical Thinking Skills:
Comparing opinions
Analyzing love poems (Readings: three poems)
Making inferences about characters
Synthesizing Internet content: Taking notes and presenting results
Writing Tip: Creating a dialogue

Vocabulary Building:
Using prefixes to build new words
Scanning for words with clues
Focusing on words from the Academic Word List
Getting the meaning of words from context

Focus on Testing (TOEFL iBT): Answering questions on tests about an author’s purposes or attitudes (Reading: Gestural Ethnocentrism)

Chapter 10 - Crime and Punishment

Reading Selections:
Hooked on Crime, by Ken MacQueen
Eye Witness, by Ed McBain

Reading Skills and Strategies:
Identifying the interviewees in an article
Understanding the setting
Identifying narrative elements
Scanning for specific terms
Reading and interpreting charts

Critical Thinking Skills:
Reporting opinions
Using a graphic organizer (storyboard) to summarize the plot
Interpreting a scene from the plot in a group skit
Synthesizing Internet content: Taking notes and presenting results
Writing Tip: Using a summary of an event to connect to a personal viewpoint

Vocabulary Building:
Getting the meaning of specialized terms from context
Inferring the meaning of adjectives from context and structure
Focusing on words from the Academic Word List
Identifying spelling variations
Matching descriptive adverbs to their context

Focus on Testing (TOEFL iBT): Understanding prose summaries on tests (Reading: Privatized Prisons)