This article uses a review of research to consider a fundamental aspect of reading instruction that has been marginalized in policies and practices over the last decade: the development of silent reading habits that involve strong comprehension and optimal reading rates. The review of research attends to typical development and performances of…

Schools in the United States are making curricular changes from kindergarten through college to meet the Common Core State Standards' demands for higher expectations in reading and writing. As they make these important changes, however, they need not overturn all that they learned about effective reading pedagogy during No Child Left Behind…

In this study, the student texts and teacher guides of two reading intervention programs for at-risk, first-grade students were analyzed and compared: Fountas and Pinnell's "Leveled Literacy Intervention" (LLI) and Scott Foresman's "My Sidewalks" (MS). The analyses drew on the framework of available theory and…

Standard 10 of the Common Core State Standards attends to students' capacity with complex text. This standard distinguishes the Common Core State Standards from previous standards documents. This article describes a process--the Text Complexity Multi-Index (TCMI)--that supports teachers in studying texts to support their students in…

Core reading programs have a tremendous influence over reading instruction in the United States. Federal policies such as Reading First put increasing pressure on schools to implement a core reading program. While core reading programs contain a wide variety of suggested strategies and activities, they may not provide sufficient text or volume of…

This study considers the degree to which two quantitative indices--Lexiles and Coh-Metrix--discriminate across levels of difficulty and types of beginning reading texts. The database consisted of 444 texts, representing seven text types that are part of reading/language arts instruction. These text types were distributed across seven levels of…

Stresses the importance and benefits of children helping each other learn to read. Includes suggestions and guidelines to reading instructors for structuring peer-directed activities. (HTH)

A recent study comparing whole language and skills-oriented instruction found that students in whole language classes spent more time on cognitively complex literacy tasks. Educators need to balance the use of narrative and expository text, integrate subject matter areas, and use a variety of instructional grouping strategies. Includes 10…

Describes some of the ways in which students can be organized for reading and writing instruction. Suggests that educators must first identify the key components of literacy, then clarify a view of instruction and learning. Argues that recent literacy research has analyzed processes and texts but has overlooked the larger literacy contexts. (SG)

Evaluates several types of text used for beginning reading instruction (texts based on high-frequency and phonetically regular words, as well as the trade books of current literature-based reading programs) by examining the tasks each poses for young readers. Examines for each particular type of text what a beginning reader needs to know about…

Reports findings from a study that investigated preschool children's concepts about reading. Offers suggestions for adults who guide young children through their early experiences with print. (FL)

Reviews the literature on the nature of processes within reading groups of different ability levels and the effects of these processes on children's reading development. Presents a perspective on instructional-social contexts for reading instruction. (AEA)

A review of research indicates that current beginning reading practices typically emphasize discrete skills that fail to take advantage of young children's emergent literacy abilities. Suggestions for strengthening the match between young children's emergent literacy and instructional experiences are offered. (RH)

This study examined the effectiveness of a little book curriculum in facilitating the independent word-solving skills of first-grade readers. The curriculum was based on a theoretical model that identified two critical dimensions of text-based support for beginning readers: linguistic content and cognitive load. The 15-week little book…

Uses a task perspective to examine literature-based and skills-oriented approaches to literacy in second and sixth grade classes. Results confirm that the literature-based method encourages higher order thinking, whereas the skills-oriented method promotes performance of small, simple tasks. (DG)