This article describes an unexpected playground experience that occurred between the author, a reading educator and former middle grades teacher, and his six-year-old granddaughter. The experience became the inspiration and impetus to provide an introduction to, and a rationale for, the concept of text clusters to middle grades teachers. The…

Teacher professional development (PD) in reading is aimed at improving teachers' instructional practice and, in turn, positively impacting students' reading achievement. Findings from 25 studies included in this meta-analysis demonstrate that overall, reading PD produced significant, positive effects on teacher outcomes (g = 0.62). The overall…

A significant portion of Brazilian students fail to meet basic reading standards. The 2017 National Common Curricular Base (NCCB) marked a pivotal effort by the government to prioritize recognizing phonics in early reading instruction. However, the NCCB lacked clear directives for implementation, resulting in limited adoption in classrooms where…

Selection and implementation of evidence-based reading interventions is a complex process that requires careful consideration of factors such as intervention effectiveness and social validity. Social validity refers to how key stakeholders, including teachers, students, and parents, perceive the goals, methods, and outcomes of an intervention.…

Learning disabilities (LD) may affect a range of academic skills but are most often observed in reading. Researchers and policymakers increasingly recommend addressing reading difficulties encountered by students with LD using evidence-based practices, or interventions validated through multiple, high-quality research studies. A valuable tool in…

The study of Hebrew, a non-European language written in a non-alphabetic (abjadic) script offers valuable insights into the science of reading beyond the well-studied alphabetic scripts. Because reading development in Hebrew is shaped by the uniquely Semitic root-and-pattern morphology and the abjadic (predominantly consonantal) orthography, our…

In this article, the author reflected on the challenges and opportunities that emerged as they introduced climate fiction, or cli-fi reading and writing into the curriculum, including the author's attempts to navigate the politics of the genre, activate the students' imagination and interest, and invite the students to become creators as well as…

Reading in elementary school is central to supporting student reading development. However, a gap exists in current research regarding the types of texts that teachers select for reading instruction and the instructional contexts in which that reading occurs. Teachers' autonomy to select texts and activities for reading instruction is complex and…

Early years education begins with the rejection of the notion that children are deficient adults. But it has culminated in a deep and abiding concern for learning difficulties, particularly in the field of reading. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile the seeming contradiction between the former view, which appears to eschew the concept of…

The English orthography contains many "complex words" in which relationships between orthography, phonology, morphology, and semantics are relatively opaque. Throughout school, children encounter increasingly complex words from which they are expected to make meaning. Students' ability to read these words depends on the skills they bring…

Reading skills are widely recognized as fundamental abilities, crucial not only for academic success but also for participation in social activities and navigating interpersonal challenges. In the early formation of reading abilities, mastery of sight words is instrumental in effectively enhancing reading proficiency, particularly for individuals…

The science of reading refers to the extensive body of research on how we learn to read and the most effective methods for teaching reading. Our knowledge of what works in reading instruction is based on decades of rigorous, scientifically based research in the fields of education, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. This research digest…

Prosody is an important indicator of reading development, but many teachers are unclear about how it can help students improve their reading fluency. Beyond demonstrating expressive or flowing reading, specific components of "reading prosody" can distinctly reveal how well word recognition and comprehension processes coalesce, providing…

In secondary English classrooms, poetry is often a text that is least liked because it is viewed as being "inaccessible," reserved for the elite, and/or too abstract. Part of the reason for this also lies in the traditional, colonial structures of introducing poetry such as relying on canonical texts and close reading analysis. Yet,…

The importance of oral language skills in reading comprehension is widely recognized in contemporary models. Building on this foundation, we propose the Linguistic Pathways Model. In this model, we illuminate mechanistic and developmental detail by which individual components of oral language support reading comprehension and embrace the multiple…