The new "AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" offer significant potential for helping library media specialists tailor instruction to student needs. These standards are precise and clear, and they align themselves to reading strategies as well as language arts and content area standards. The new standards will also help strengthen lesson…

The most effective way to understand what a child knows about the reading process is to take a running record. In "Running Records", Mary Shea demonstrates how teachers can use this powerful tool to design lessons that decrease reading difficulties, build on strengths, and stimulate motivation, ensuring that children develop self-sustaining…

Collaboration and reflection are critical to effective teaching and student progress in reading. Responding to the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students who struggle in reading is a persistent challenge for teachers, especially those in urban settings. Conversations between literacy coaches and teachers in urban settings provide…

Many high school teachers and administrators think that reading instruction belongs in the lower grades. But according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 31% of eighth graders read at or above the proficient level, which means that many are entering high school unprepared for its advanced textbook reading and language…

Emerging literacy has been defined as the "reading and writing knowledge and behavior of children who are not yet conventionally literate" (Justice & Kaderavek, 2002, p. 8). This article provides readers with strategies for meeting the emerging literacy needs of young children with disabilities. Ideas for creating a literacy-rich environment as…

Reading buddies have been used by teachers for many years. The practice and benefits of having older students reading with younger students on a regular basis has been well documented. This article provides suggestions for teachers as they begin a reading buddy program and includes ideas for meaningful follow-up activities that will help keep…

In the midst of many circle times, one can overhear small voices adding to the words from the book being read aloud by the teacher. Sometimes the children's words relate to the text, sometimes not. Early childhood educators recognize the importance of reading aloud every day to develop children's language and early literacy skills. Recommendations…

Children start asking questions as soon as they speak their first sentences. And they continue to ask them at home and in the classroom if adults let them. Mosaic of Thought (Keene and Zimmermann 2007) has provided the author with a "field guide" to both her son's questions at home and her second-grade students' questions in the classroom. Keene…

Paraphrasing, somewhat different from retelling and summarizing, helps students monitor their understanding and incorporate new knowledge with what they already know about a topic. Paraphrasing helps students realize that comprehension is the goal of reading.

Transfer of reading strategies from the first language (L1) to the second language (L2) has long puzzled educators, but what happens if the L1 is an alphabet language and the second is not, or if there is a mismatch in the languages' grapheme-phoneme connection? Although some students readily adjust to reading and writing in their second language,…

How might four teachers working together in a book group utilize their learning to better ensure students' academic success? In what ways might this collective's learning emerge as the group worked together? Questions such as these prompted the author to investigate the professional learning that occurred during book club sessions with one group…

This "Blueprint" describes the actions everyone needs to take if they are to nourish Indiana's young adolescents so that they will be able to develop their reading skills to their full potential. This document spells out the ways that everyone can make books available, provide middle grades students with the time for reading, provide…

Struggling readers are more likely to learn essential reading skills and strategies if the direct or explicit model of instruction is part of the teacher's repertoire of teaching methods. Directly/explicitly teaching reading means imparting new information to students through meaningful teacher-student interactions and teacher guidance of student…

Does fluency need to be an instructional precursor to comprehension? The perceived causal relationship between the two may in fact translate into the creation of word-calling students who can read with adequate speed and expression, but cannot retell story events or make inferences. A discussion of fluency's relationship to comprehension provides…

Strong reading comprehension skills are central not only to academic and professional success, but also to a productive social and civic life. These skills build the capacity to learn independently, to absorb information on a variety of topics, to enjoy reading, and to experience literature more deeply. Despite the growing demand for highly…