Presents a scenario taken from the author's summer classroom (a brief instructional history of a child heading into third grade but reading at the primary level, followed by an actual classroom dialog that poses a problem). Shares how the author responded to it with goals focusing on making sense and paying attention to print. (SR)

Shares examples of explicit teacher talk to demonstrate its influence on learners: encouraging positive reading behaviors, thinking metacognitively, and using meaning as well as sounding out words. Describes teacher talk that (1) promotes struggling readers' understandings and control in reading; and (2) that empowers novice teachers and thus…

Uses a brief instructional history and quotes actual classroom dialog to focus on a teacher's instructional decisions and practices that helped a 10-year-old boy, reading below a preprimer reading level, move toward reading independence. (SR)