Reading connected text--that is, multiple sentences related to each other-- requires greater skill than reading isolated words. To read and understand connected text, students must quickly recognize words, integrate what they are reading with their background knowledge, and monitor their comprehension. This document provides a summary of…

Learning to read begins at home through everyday parent-child interactions, long before children attend school. Parents' continuing support of literacy development throughout elementary school positively affects their children's reading ability. Many recent efforts to motivate parents to be involved in their child's literacy development involve…

This is a companion to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide, "Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade" (ED566956). This guide is organized according to the four recommendations and how-to steps from the WWC practice guide. The activities follow the typical developmental…

This Kindergarten Teacher's Guide provides information for kindergarten teachers on how to support families as they practice foundational reading skills at home. It serves as a companion to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade. Both guides present four…

Recent efforts to motivate parents' involvement in their child's literacy development involve informing parents about how to incorporate literacy development into daily routines. Teacher leadership and communication are critical--the more teachers encourage and assist parents and caregivers in supporting their child's literacy development, the…

When students experience reading difficulties--or even before they do--teachers can use specialized knowledge to help them achieve success. This overview of the International Dyslexia Association's "Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading" describes those reading and literacy standards and provides resources for teacher…

Skills development in reading should be balanced with reading, listening, and talking activities which focus on content and themes, so that reading comprehension is also developed. (SJL)

Suggests that books written for English-speaking children can be used effectively in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom. The teacher may choose one particular text to use effectively in many different ways. (CFM)

Explains the difference between a reading aloud to children program designed to motivate children to read, and a developmental listening program which provides a focus for listening in a whole language environment and requires response and evaluation. (SD)

Offers techniques teachers can use to incorporate questioning into reading instruction. (FL)

Offers an alternative to round-robin oral reading that uses paired, choral, imitative, and mumble reading. (FL)

Three assessment strategies to help elementary teachers gather information about their students' reading (and thus direct their teaching) include keeping running records of students' oral reading, requesting retellings of stories to determine students' comprehension, and talking seriously about reading with students to determine their overall…

Suggests alternatives to questioning after reading that involve students and encourage independence. (AEA)

Argues that reading aloud by students is a useful and necessary skill. Discusses the various purposes, types, and amounts of oral reading needed for effective reading instruction in the elementary classroom. (MG)

Encourages teachers to use imitative reading, choral reading, and repeated readings in the classroom to improve intonation, speaking skills, word recognition, reading rate, and comprehension, while boosting self-confidence. (RAE)