This article explores how Ms. Ford, a first-grade teacher, integrated literary tools to engage students in higher-level thinking and meaning making. Through the use of teacher talk, eliciting responses, asking for clarity, and expanding on student responses, she utilized discourse to support students in making meaning. Ms. Ford's first-grade…

Learning to read begins at home through everyday parent-child interactions, long before children attend school. Parents' continuing support of literacy development throughout elementary school positively affects their children's reading ability. Many recent efforts to motivate parents to be involved in their child's literacy development involve…

The goal of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Practice Guide, "Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade," is to offer educators specific, evidence-based recommendations for teaching foundational reading skills to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. The guide suggests…