Finds teaching prereading kindergartners in the rime analogy strategy and prereading skills resulted in more reading than teaching either alone. Notes many children developed the untaught abilities of medial and final phoneme identity and the letter recoding reading strategy; and children were able to generalize the rime analogy strategy to read…

Contrary to the claims of members of the National Reading Panel, there is strong evidence supporting the practice of in-school free reading. Many studies show "no difference" between in-school free reading and traditional instruction, but there are very few negative studies, and many positive studies. (The author's scorecard has 24 positive and…

This article describes the findings of our review process for core reading programs and provides a preliminary rubric emanating from this process for rating core reading programs. To our knowledge, this is the first published review of the current "Reading First" guidelines and includes all five components of scientifically based reading…

This article provides an overview of a multicomponent comprehension strategy and graphic organizers designed for older readers to gain meaning from text. Practices designed to capitalize on the best research-based elements associated with improved outcomes in reading comprehension, particularly for expository texts, are described. The graphic…

For the past three decades and more, researchers in adolescent literacy have illuminated the challenges and opportunities facing adolescent learning. This article explores the connection between what we know about adolescent literacy and the mandates and initiatives of the No Child Left Behind Act in the United States. It connects what we know…

In recent years, significant progress has been made in the study of reading and reading disability with the use of functional neuroimaging techniques. There is substantial converging evidence that skilled word recognition requires the development of a highly integrated cortical system that includes left hemisphere dorsal, ventral, and anterior…

The authors examined word skipping in reading in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, skipping rates were higher for a preview of a predictable word than for a visually similar nonword, indicating there is full recognition in parafoveal vision. In Experiment 2, foveal load was manipulated by varying the frequency of the word preceding either a 3-letter…

Major theories of how skilled readers recognize, understand and pronounce written words include processes for phonological recoding (i.e., translating segments of print to their corresponding segments of sound) and processes by which direct access is achieved from printed words to their meanings. If these are the processes employed in skilled…

For the past few years the authors have worked in urban public elementary schools to implement literacy instruction that emphasizes higher-level reading, writing, and thinking, while also maintaining instructional focus on the skills of decoding, word recognition, and fluency. Their efforts have involved implementing an initiative called In2Books.…

This study compared the instructional effectiveness and efficiency of three word-reading interventions on cumulative number of words read accurately and cumulative learning rate. Participants were six first graders who needed intensive intervention services. Alternating treatment designs were used to compare the effects of interspersal drill, a…

James Gee has suggested that video games can teach us important lessons about learning and that we can learn about teaching from these games. Reading research and the words of the author's daughter are the basis of an exploration of the learning principles Gee identifies. He explains that video games are successful in engaging children and…

Many children struggle to learn to read, and these difficulties can persist well into adulthood. To address this problem, researchers have investigated the processes that underlie reading. An informative body of work has thus identified basic skills (e.g., decoding, vocabulary knowledge) as necessary for successful reading. Researchers also have…

The authors address the "whys" and "hows" of encouraging independent reading at home. Practical tips that teachers can give to parents are provided.

In this article, the author argues that there is minimal scientific support for the pedagogical approaches promoted for low-income students in the federal Reading First initiative. In combination with high-stakes testing, the interpretation of the construct "systematic phonics instruction" in Reading First has resulted in highly…

It has been suggested that the differences observed for dyslexic readers compared to normal readers on tasks measuring visual sensitivity may simply be the result of differences between the two groups in general cognitive ability and/or attentional engagement. One common way to accommodate this proposal is to match normal and dyslexic readers on…