This commentary addresses the complexities of reading comprehension with an explicit focus on reading in the disciplines. The author proposes reading as entailing multi-dimensional demands of the reader and posing complex challenges for teachers. These challenges are intensified by restrictive conceptions of relevant prior knowledge and experience…

In this Research Connections column, Editor David Moore interviews Cynthia Greenleaf, Gayle Cribb, and Heather Howlett. Greenleaf codirects the Strategic Literacy Initiative and leads professional development projects in its Reading Apprenticeship instructional framework. Her approach to disciplinary literacy instruction is based on her findings…

Students say that teachers can "suck" for several reasons. Teachers suck when they are repetitive, boring, assume the worst about their students or refuse to listen to students' explanations for their apparent misbehavior, have too many rules, assign a task that seems impossible, talk too much, or when they separate students from a friend or a…