Author Gwen J. Pauloski introduces four flexible adolescent literacy practices that help secondary students make deeper sense of the complex informational texts they encounter in school and beyond. Adolescent readers learn age-appropriate comprehension strategies and practice applying them as they discuss, analyze, and write about their reading.…

One of the most efficient ways of learning essential content in the curriculum is through reading; however, accessing content through reading even some of the most basic texts for many students with disabilities is a challenge (C. Lee & Spratley, 2010). As a student enters secondary settings, text complexity, vocabulary demands, and curricular…

Comprehending expository reading material is a challenge for many students. Research has shown that students' expository reading comprehension can improve with the help of text structure instruction. The purpose of this article is to present teachers with a framework for effectively implementing text structure instruction in their classrooms.…

This teaching tip outlines a comprehension strategy designed to support early primary students in reading to learn while learning to read. The strategy is born of the authors' classroom practices and is designed to support young children in reading and understanding informational texts by facilitating close interactions between text and reader.…

In this new edition of their groundbreaking book "Strategies That Work," Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis share the work and thinking they've done since the second edition came out a decade ago and offer new perspectives on how to explicitly teach thinking strategies so that students become engaged, thoughtful, independent readers.…

The activities described in this article, Prediction Path and Quotation Cafe, are adapted from the IRA book "Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12." They highlight the reading comprehension habit of making inferences and predictions, which can be used across content areas and grade levels. In creating this toolkit of activities, the…

First- and second-grade students in two intact multiage classrooms were engaged in three read-aloud sessions with thematically related trade books, each portraying a scientist involved in authentic investigation. One group engaged in discussion of text ideas during reading, whereas the other group engaged in discussion only at the conclusion of…

As part of its proposal to the U.S. Department of Education, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) committed to developing Kindergarten through Grade 2 Model Content Frameworks for English language arts (ELA)/literacy (K-2 Model Content Frameworks) to serve as a bridge between the Common Core State Standards…

This study examined the motivation to read of children in grades two through six. All children in the study were strong in their literal comprehension of narrative text. Some were equally strong in their ability to respond thoughtfully to the text (Blue Group); others struggled to respond to questions requiring them to think about the implications…

In this article, the author discusses top-level structure, a form of text structure that would help students improve their reading comprehension. There are four main organizational patterns, or top-level structures, that occur mostly in factual texts: compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/ solution, and list-like. Authors often use signaling…

When the author asked her eighth-grade students to list some reading strategies, they were well prepared to answer her. But when she asked them how they knew they did not understand what they were reading--in other words, how they knew they need to use these reading strategies--they were unable to produce an explanation. She launched an action…

Through retelling, students can begin to attach sense and meaning to the sometimes complex concepts they encounter in science texts. Also, the shift from silent thinking to verbal expression causes the brain to consolidate and integrate new ideas. As students share information through retelling, they gain new perspectives on the text as they hear…

Content-based reading texts play a vital role in the acquisition of knowledge and information in various fields of studies. Reading these texts at higher institution demands a great deal of effort from the students who are learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). These students who are generally school leavers, whose level or reading…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the uses of informational texts within an ethnically diverse, second grade classroom and how the teacher carefully scaffolded students' developing understandings about these texts. A community of practice theoretical framework was employed to better understand the ways in which…

Characters in children's books can help to guide readers through stories, contributing to deepened understandings of plot and themes. The authors discuss why characters become vivid and lasting in readers' minds, the ways in which students are often asked to think about characters in classroom literature study, and how students' understanding of…