Many teachers feel that students should not struggle with text; instead, they should read easier texts in order to learn from them and make adequate growth in reading. In turn, teachers might use easier or leveled texts as a solution or a graphic novel or multimodal version to differentiate text reading and to motivate and engage reluctant…

A new metric, Word Maturity, estimates the development by individual students of knowledge of every word in a large corpus. The metric is constructed by Latent Semantic Analysis modeling of word knowledge as a function of the reading that a simulated learner has done and is calibrated by its developing closeness in information content to that of a…

Adolescents may struggle with text for a number of reasons, including problems with a) vocabulary knowledge, b) general knowledge of topics and text structures, c) knowing of what to do when comprehension breaks down, or d) proficiency in monitoring their own reading comprehension. Most recent literacy initiatives target younger readers and…

Secondary-level students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds who struggle with reading need strategies for aligning new information with their previous knowledge as well as for obtaining and retaining essential information from the text. Important components of all secondary literacy support must include instruction in…

In this article, the author talks about "Developing Early Literacy," the report of the National Early Literacy Panel. The panel, which consisted of nine experts, was convened by the National Institute for Literacy to synthesize the research on the development of literacy from birth through age 5. Over the eight years of their work, only 190…

This meta-analysis examines to what extent interactive storybook reading stimulates two pillars of learning to read: vocabulary and print knowledge. The authors quantitatively reviewed 31 (quasi) experiments (n = 2,049 children) in which educators were trained to encourage children to be actively involved before, during, and after joint book…