This article shares a literacy strategy to support students' analysis of the theme of text and provide evidence to support their assertion. The strategy is called Visual to Print Transfer (VPT). The VPT strategy leverages students' out-of-school literacy practices involving media images of Hollywood icons as a way to support their understanding of…

The concept of close reading is an important consideration when addressing the Common Core State Standards. In addition, "close reading" permeates the CCSS and suggests a particular way of reading and responding to texts. Trying to help students become successful readers in both school based settings and in the world outside of school is…

Teaching children to inquire, discuss ideas, and defend thinking about a literary text is a key aim of the common core state standards (CCSS). This article describes how four third-grade, male struggling readers successfully co-constructed meaning during a discussion based reading intervention rooted in philosophical inquiry. Three elements that…

Studies word learning in predictable text by investigating three important factors in facilitating young children's word learning: the reader, the text, and the task. Offers specific suggestions for teaching. (SR)

Concludes that poor readers' comprehension of stories was improved by instruction that focused on causal structure, but that a few learners still struggling with basic decoding were too preoccupied to attend to story structure. (FL)

Suggests that Whole Language is not the whole word approach, nor merely teaching skills in context, nor the Language Experience approach, nor a new term for the Open Classroom, but rather a point of view about language, literacy, and content learning. (JC)