I examine the ways in which reading in the classroom is a social practice and how that social practice can produce nuanced student texts that reflect a rich understanding of what has been read. In doing so, I also consider how the reading environment allows us to manipulate and embody texts in ways that allow for a more detailed understanding than…

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…

Julie Coiro is an assistant professor in the Reading Department at the University of Rhode Island. Her research focuses on adolescents' online reading comprehension development. She has served as co-editor of the "Handbook of Research in New Literacies" (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008), among many publications. In this interview, Coiro…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to respond to A. G. Kamhi's (2007) challenge to consider two points of view on reading--the broad and the narrow. Each point of view includes a component of the reading process; namely, comprehension and word recognition. Taken separately, each point of view is insufficient for our understanding of the…

Purpose: This commentary is a personal reaction to A. G. Kamhi's (2007) article on the "narrow view" of reading and his suggestion that this view be adopted as a way to address the reading problems of children and adolescents. Method: In this article, I consider the narrow view of reading from an adolescent literacy perspective and discuss the…

As a result of the Reading First Program of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the view of reading has narrowed. Individual state's Reading First professional development programs, and hence reading teachers across the United States, have spent the six years since the funding of the program in 2002 focusing beginning and developmental reading on…

Examines problems involved in defining reading comprehension. Suggests reexamining comprehension testing, rethinking the missions of reading instruction, and helping students find, formulate, and solve problems for which using written language provides a solution. (TJ)

Critiques Fleming's proposed alternative to Rubenstein's evidence for phonemic encoding. This reanalysis strengthens the evidence for phonemic encoding and suggests that Fleming's "alternative" should be considered as another source of variance affecting recognition, not as a mutually exclusive alternative to phonemic encoding. (HOD)

Addresses lack of overlap and intercommunication between research on early reading and reading comprehension. Discusses metacognitive control in reading and learning processes. Suggests the emancipation of attentional resources by the automatization of lower level word identification and higher level basic comprehension skills. Concludes with…

This paper presents a model delineating attributes which enable a literate reader to successfully participate in a pluralistic society. The paper outlines the model as building upon and defining the traditional skills and schema views of reading comprehension which include maturity, attitudes, dispositions, intellectual abilities, knowledge, and…

Highlights ways in which standard information processing models of language, and specifically of reading, are deficient. Deficiencies are considered under four headings: (1) theoretical rigour, (2) the interaction of different levels of information during reading; (3) the parallel nature of much of human information processing, and (4) reading…

Argues that the teaching of poetry teaches sequential comprehension, the process of reading and rereading a poem by making sense of connected images, metaphors, or conceits. Investigates the question of how poetry should be dealt with in the schools to make good use of its specialness. (TB)

Conceives of reading as the general process through which meaning is construed from patterned forms of representation which take shape in words, visual images, auditory patterns, etc. Discusses reading's role in understanding the images of culture and overcoming the blindness brought about by the neglect of complex reading skills in the schools…

Suggests that reading theorists who neglect to treat context frequently produce distorted views of how reading occurs. (MKM)

Improving employee reading skills requires attention to three elements: speed, accuracy, and comprehension. Reading efficiency can be enhanced by teaching various styles: surveying, skimming, scanning, intensive reading, and critical reading. (SK)