If there is one area in which conservatives should overcome any lingering aversion to being prescriptive about classroom practice, it is early childhood literacy. Early reading failure is as close to determinative as any outcome in educational research. Given that the vast majority of teachers in a given state are trained and licensed in that…

A child's ability to fingerpoint accurately to words while reading aloud a memorized text showcases his/her development of concept of word in text. This ability demonstrates the extent to which key early literacy skills are integrated (e.g., alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness). Research indicates that attaining a concept of word in text is…

If you were to walk into this second-grade classroom during reading workshop, you would notice students reading books specific to their reading level and interest. You would also notice students using different tools to support their reading development. One of the teacher's goals is to help students become independent readers who are able to…

In this paper, we present an Asset-Based Interactive View of Reading that builds on the Active View of Reading, Self-Determination Theory, and Asset-Based Pedagogy to consider the role of students' individual, linguistic, and cultural resources in understanding reading processes. We begin by discussing some of the limitations with the ways Science…

Behavior and academic outcomes in school are interrelated; students who struggle with academics are likelier to exhibit troublesome behavior and students who struggle with behavior tend to fall behind academically. Multitiered systems of support (MTSS) offer frameworks for providing increasingly intensive support for students with academic and…

This paper presents an overview of evidence from psychological research, which enables us to understand the processes involved in word reading, how children develop word reading skills and how to teach them to read words successfully. Psychological models of reading in alphabetic orthographies propose two routes to word reading: an indirect route…

This article describes four key principles from Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI, formerly called Targeted Reading Intervention), an evidence-based early reading intervention and professional development program. Focused on accelerating the growth of students not yet meeting grade-level expectations, one-on-one 15-minute daily TRI lessons engage…

Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is an instructional framework considered to be an evidence-based practice in writing. In this article, SRSD's foundations and structure is briefly described. Then, the authors provide a summary of studies of SRSD applied across content areas, including writing, reading, mathematics, science, and social…

This article addresses the characteristics of learners in the emergent stage of literacy development and describes two instructional practices that facilitate the development of the alphabetic principle and concept of word in text.

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have more difficulty in achieving proficiency in reading comprehension than their neurotypical peers. As students with ASD are increasingly educated in inclusive settings, general education teachers must have knowledge of the characteristics of autism that may impede comprehension of text to understand…

The science of reading emphasizes explicit skills-based reading instruction to support students' reading acquisition. Yet, despite ample evidence of support, some students do not respond to such instruction adequately. To characterize why some students are not responsive to evidence-based reading instruction and to inform the development of novel…

The disappointing results of the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress--a dip in trajectory of reading proficiency for all students except those at the highest level of ability--are prompting states to consider new reading-related policies and actions. In "State Policy Levers for Improving Literacy," Barbara Foorman describes…

This article seeks to complicate the understanding of Bishop's (1990) metaphor of mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors, with particular emphasis on sliding glass doors and the emotional connections needed for readers to move through them. The authors begin by examining the importance of the reader and the characters he or she meets. Next, the…

An early skill in learning to read has as much to do with hearing how words sound as it does with seeing how words are written. Phonological awareness involves being able to recognize and manipulate the sounds within words. Learning to identify the sounds in words through instruction happens best when the sounds are explicitly connected to the…

The author reflects on the development of her own reading life and how that rich reading life failed to influence how she taught reading early in her career. During graduate studies, while researching in classrooms where reading workshop was the instructional model and through talking to those exemplary teachers, the author came to understand both…