The purpose of this nonequivalent, control group, pretest-posttest design study was to evaluate the effectiveness of leveled book programs on first-grade students' oral reading fluency rates and comprehension levels. This study was conducted over a 10-week time span with four first-grade classes. All of the students in each class were given a…

The author cuts through the pressurized, strategy-overloaded, fluency-crazed atmosphere surrounding reading instruction to lay out the reading and writing workshop practices that are most effective in developing readers in the primary grades. She shares the daily how-tos needed to sustain a literacy block that engages children in authentic reading…

The goals of this study were to (a) develop an empirically based model regarding the development of fluent and automatic reading in the early elementary school years and (b) determine whether fluent text-reading skills provided benefits for reading comprehension beyond those accounted for by fluent word decoding. First-, second-, and third-grade…

Filling a crucial gap in the literature, this immensely practical volume presents innovative tools for helping K-3 students significantly increase their ability to make meaning from texts. The focus is on teaching the comprehension processes employed by expert readers, using a carefully sequenced combination of whole-class activities, specially…

Instruction in narrative text structure on first graders' listening and reading comprehension was examined with a view to documenting strategy instruction and transfer of learning in beginning readers. Of interest was whether or not first-grade students (n=35) would, following instruction within the context of listening to stories, gain in…