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…

Presents ideas for creating a purposeful classroom environment that will help students become strategic readers. Suggestions include using the conference table to learn about students as readers, organizing books to help children make wise choices, and creating a meeting area that invites discussion. (SM)

Shared reading lets elementary teachers show children what reading is about. Teachers read the text aloud and encourage students to read along. All levels of readers can participate. Teachers can do letter or sound searches to help children understand how to use what they know about letters and spelling patterns in order to read unfamiliar words.…