Teaching elementary students how to read is undeniably crucial, yet a substantial number of children encounter difficulties despite early interventions. Cross-age tutoring, a pedagogical approach that pairs older students with younger peers, emerges as a cost-effective solution that brings academic and social benefits to both the tutor and the…

In this article, the author presents a teaching prompt--Write-it-Out--to instruct readers who seemingly guess at words with no or limited use of grapheme-phonemic correspondences to recontextualize word-solving into writing. Through the nature of this prompt, slowing down the pace of solving words on the run with writing also reciprocally builds…

This article describes a comprehensive framework (iDISC) for the close reading of informational texts for elementary students that may need additional language, social, memory, or behavioral supports. The article introduces concrete tools that are used before, during, and after close reading, including cue-cards, language stems, discussion…

This article discusses language comprehension and developing skills with emergent readers, in particular verbal reasoning and language structures, that are necessary for later reading comprehension.

Concepts of print are essential, foundational literacy understandings about words in their written, or print form. Concepts include discerning pictures from written words, reading print from top to bottom and left to right with one-to-one correspondence between words read and words in print. Reading aloud from a big book is widely accepted and…

In a quasi-experimental study, kindergarten teachers taught children mnemonic stories to orient the confusable letters "b" and "d." In the first week's stories, intervention teachers introduced the left-to-right sequence of features for these letters with "the bat hits the ball" and "a dime rolls up to a…

This article underscores the intimate connection between reading and writing as communication skills that share a common linguistic and orthographic foundation, and which combine in complex ways to support practical literacy tasks. Developing higher order literacy skills requires teachers to develop metacognitive skills and self-regulation, both…

A survey completed by 22 literacy clinic directors indicated that clinics share beliefs and instructional practices. Literacy clinics provide a context in which children are taught to read and write by clinicians who are training to be literacy teachers. As best practices in reading instruction are debated, effective clinical assessment and…

This paper pushes beyond current debates over what is being called the science of reading to articulate a multidimensional complex conception of what is entailed in reading comprehension. Reading comprehension entails not only cognitive processes, but equally important is how issues of identity along multiple dimensions, perceptions of tasks and…

Teachers are asked to use reading science to inform how they teach phonics and phonological awareness. As teachers look to the research base to guide their practice, some questions and concerns regarding what best practice looks like have come up. This article starts with a brief description of phonics and phonemic awareness and then discusses…

In this article we report the results and classroom implications of a qualitative study that explored third-grade students' interactions with each other as they partner read. Participants included 10 students, each of whom engaged in three readings with a partner during recorded observations. All students had been taught structures for partner…

Informational texts present complex content using language that is simultaneously technical, abstract, dense, and authoritative. This article describes practical strategies to support teachers in using informational picture books to prepare upper elementary school students for navigating the complex language demands necessitated by expository…

Teachers, leaders, reformers, policymakers, and advocates all comprehend the weightiness of reading instruction, experiences, and outcomes for society, schools, and children. There have been numerous waves of reading reform, with federal, state, and local policies addressing numerous aspects of reading instruction. Currently, there are numerous…

This manuscript describes the need elementary teachers have to analyze beginning and complex texts for teaching affordances and obstacles when teaching reading foundational skills and core ELA standards. A Guide to Analyze Texts for Elementary Students (GATES) is provided and described. Two teacher cases discuss how real teachers have used the…

In this article, one teacher shares her journey using decodable books with her culturally and linguistically diverse students, documenting new understandings and tensions that she has encountered. Four literacy teacher educators augment the teacher's story by connecting it with the current literature on literacy and decodable books. After reading…