Reading comprehension is the goal of reading, and making inferences is vital. Authors usually expect readers to make multiple types of inferences, including anaphoric, background knowledge, predictive, and retrospective. Common core assessments include all of these, yet instructional materials focus mostly on only one type, retrospective. This…

Reading comprehension requires thoughtful interactions between the reader, the text, and the author. The author may assist the reader in building meaning by creating purposefully crafted conversations that are organized into predictable patterns also known as patterned books. In this article, three predictable patterns found within children's text…

School is sometimes framed as a place for preparing, a place for becoming college and career ready. At times this approach positions school as an important space "within" the world of college and careers, envisioned perhaps as Dewey imagined it, as a safe place to try things, a space where real work of participation in society could be done but in…

Examines the construct, appropriateness and appeal of natural science action books. Defines them as books with movable three-dimensional parts which illuminate scientific concepts as well as add immeasurably to children's pleasure of learning about the natural world. Stresses integral nature of motivational/instructional materials in children's…

Claims that readers can conduct dialogue with many inner audiences through reading, and readers who manage to do so are likely to develop more sophisticated strategies for learning. Describes different kinds of dialogues, specifically, dialoging with reader's experience, with the author/illustrator, with genre, with problems, and with culture.…