Latino English learners (ELs) come to elementary classrooms with many English-Spanish cognates in their listening, speaking, reading, and writing vocabularies. Cognates are words that are orthographically, semantically, and syntactically similar in two languages because of a shared etymology. Some cognates are identical in both English and…

The development of cognitive processes is essential to the development of reading comprehension skills. (MKM)

Describes an inservice technique that models for teachers how they can use the Directed Reading Thinking Activity to develop students' predictive strategies. (FL)

Reviews materials that teachers and students can use to help build knowledge of topics and word meanings that are essential to reading comprehension. (FL)

Inferential questions were found to elicit longer responses than factual questions, reflecting complexity and the use of higher cognitive processes. (MKM)

Reports on programs and activities designed to teach thinking skills either as a separate school subject or as a strand in a content area. (FL)

Argues that using story frames to guide students' responses to comprehension questions seems to help them provide better answers and to develop their independent comprehension skills. (FL)

Teaching active comprehension helps students learn to ask their own questions and guide their own thinking. (MKM)

Argues that making inferences is an integral part of reading comprehension. Presents classroom strategies based on current research that encourage inference skill development. (FL)

Provides several typical negative sentence structures, discusses why children find them difficult, and suggests how to begin teaching them to handle negatives. (FL)

Discusses the relationship of cognitive development or thinking skills to language development and beginning reading. (MKM)

Suggests that in addition to the diagnosis and remediation of specific skill deficiencies, the reading specialist must restructure the student's learning environment to promote the attainment of concepts, motivation, and flexible congnitive strategies and styles. (TO)

Notes that brain research completed in recent years has shed light on the process of learning to read, then reviews that research and makes suggestions about what it means for instruction. (FL)

Notes that little research has been undertaken into the effects of anthropomorphism on children's reading and presents questions concerning the use of this device in beginning reading materials. (FL)

Describes semantic mapping, an effective strategy for vocabulary instruction that involves the categorical structuring of information in graphic form and requires students to relate new words to their own experience and prior knowledge. (HOD)