Explore the vast range of titles available.

The author reviews theory and research by Ehri and her colleagues to document how a scientific approach has been applied over the years to conduct controlled studies whose findings reveal how beginners learn to read words in and out of text. Words may be read by decoding letters into blended sounds or by predicting words from context, but the way that contributes most to reading and comprehending text is reading words automatically from memory by sight. The evidence shows that words are read from memory when graphemes are connected to phonemes. This bonds spellings of individual words to their pronunciations along with their meanings in memory. Readers must know grapheme–phoneme relations and have decoding skill to form connections, and must read words in text to associate spellings with meanings. Readers move through four developmental phases as they acquire knowledge about the alphabetic writing system and apply it to read and write words and build their sight vocabularies. Grapheme–phoneme knowledge and phonemic segmentation are key foundational skills that launch development followed subsequently by knowledge of syllabic and morphemic spelling–sound units. Findings show that when spellings attach to pronunciations and meanings in memory, they enhance memory for vocabulary words. This research underscores the importance of systematic phonics instruction that teaches students the knowledge and skills that are essential in acquiring word-reading skill.

In this article, we critique the science of reading when it is positioned within the reading wars as settling disagreements about reading and how it should be taught. We frame our argument in terms of troublesome binaries, specifically between nature and nurture. We interpret that binary in relation to Overton’s distinction between split and relational metatheories, with the latter suggesting a more integrative view of nature and nurture. Focusing on the nature side of the binary, which predominates when the science of reading is promoted in the reading wars, we argue that its singular focus limits the range of scientific inquiry, interpretation, and application to practice. Specifically, we address limitations of the science of reading as characterized by a narrow theoretical lens, an abstracted empiricism, and uncritical inductive generalizations derived from brain-imaging and eye movement data sources. Finally, we call for a relational metatheoretical stance and offer emulative examples of that stance in the field.

It is commonly believed that reading challenges should be addressed early to reduce the likelihood that developmental delays will impact students over the long term. However, students in developing countries often have limited access to reading resources. In this study, the authors used a randomized controlled trial of 11,083 fourth-and fifth-grade students in 120 primary schools in rural China to examine the causal effect of an in-class library program on student reading outcomes and academic achievement in schools with poor reading resources over an eight-month period. An in-class library was installed in each of the selected classes in the 40 treatment schools. The authors found that the program significantly improved student affinity toward reading and student reading habits, and in these regards, it narrowed the gap between male and female students, between low-and high-performing students, and between left-behind children and children living with parents. However, the authors found no overall effect of the program on reading and academic achievement and a negative effect on student confidence in reading. There was also no effect on student, teacher, and primary caregiver perceptions toward the effect of independent reading on academic achievement, nor any effect on whether teachers and primary caregivers provided reading instructions to students. The authors propose three possible explanations for these findings: a lack of reading instruction from teachers and caregivers, a lack of reading materials specifically tailored to local needs and interests, and the relatively short duration of the intervention.

English speakers and expressive readers emphasize new content in an ongoing discourse. Do silent readers emphasize new content in their inner voice? Because the inner voice cannot be directly observed, we borrowed the capemphasis technique (e.g., \"toMAYto\") from the pronunciation guides of dictionaries to elicit prosodie emphasis. Extrapolating from linguistic theories of focus prosody in spoken English, we predicted and found that silent readers in experiment 1 preferred cap-emphasized, newsworthy content (\"James stole the BRACELET\") when the just-read story left them wondering what was stolen (compared with control trials). Readers preferred \"JAMES stole the bracelet\" when left wondering who the thief was. Experiment 2 generalized our findings to newsworthy function words and to a new behavioral measure, reaction time. As predicted, \"He CAN\" was judged more quickly and accurately following \"Can he swim,\" whereas \"HE can\" was judged more quickly and accurately following \"Who can swim?\" Our results suggest that readers engage focus prosody when they read silently.

The ultimate goal of reading is to comprehend written text, and this goal can only be attained if the reader can decode written words and understand their meanings. The science of reading has provided compelling evidence for the subskills that form the foundation of decoding. Decoding words requires understanding of the alphabetic principle and letter–sound, or grapheme–phoneme, correspondence. In the first year of formal schooling (kindergarten), this same understanding is also required for young learners who are learning to write the letters of the alphabet. In this article, we examine the effectiveness of a handwriting intervention, Write Start–K, that emphasizes the recall, retrieval, reproduction, and repetition (the 4Rs model) of grapheme–phoneme relations. We conducted a two-group, pre/posttest study at two Australian schools across four kindergarten classes (n = 77 students). One school received the intervention, and the other continued with standard teaching. Participants (mean age = 5 years 8.45 months, standard deviation = 4.18 months) at both schools were assessed at baseline, immediately after the eight-week intervention period, and at 12 weeks following the end of the intervention (follow-up). We used linear mixed models to determine the statistical significance of effects over three time intervals. We identified statistically significant Group × Time effects for letter name knowledge and word reading, whereas changes in letter sound knowledge and nonsense word–reading fluency approached statistical significance. These results indicate that a handwriting intervention, incorporating repeated practice in recalling and reproducing letter forms, had a statistically significant impact on early reading skills.

Environmental print, such as signs and product labels, consist of both print and contextual cues designed to attract the visual attention of the reader. However, contextual cues may draw young children's attention away from the print, thus questioning the value of environmental print in early reading development. Eye tracker technology was used to measure the extent that children attend to words in environmental print. The relationships between print fixations and letter and word knowledge, as well as differences in fixations across types of environmental print, were also examined. Preschool children (N = 39) ages 3-5 years viewed photographs of nine environmental print items and their standard print equivalents while visual fixations were recorded. Children were found to attend to words in environmental print, although they showed more and longer fixations for standard print words without contextual cues. Children's fixations were not associated with print knowledge. However, fixations on words in environmental print varied by item type to suggest that print learning may be facilitated by using environmental print with larger and more centralized fonts.

The purpose of this study was to explore middle school (grade 6‐8) students' understanding and interpretation of human rights issues with local and global implications as they engaged in the process of creating a film after reading print and multimedia texts and participating in human rights education activities. As the students explored issues related to local/global human rights from a cosmopolitan critical literacy perspective, their understanding of the interrelatedness of these issues became more complex prompting advocacy efforts. Free author podcast

This Teaching Tips describes a yearlong process of facilitating meaningful discussion groups about literature with first‐grade students in an urban Title I school. At the beginning of the year, the teacher provided explicit instruction in speaking and listening skills to support students with the social skills needed for thoughtful discussion. She established whole‐group discussions as a forum for sharing thinking and new knowledge, engaging in dialog about books, and recommending books to friends. Building on this foundation, the class moved to small‐group discussions. The article details three different types of discussion groups: informational texts and sharing learning; Mo Willems author study and sharing responses to humor; and Jon Klassen author study and sharing inferences supported by textual evidence. This article shares how first grade students took up discussion opportunities to engage in critical thinking and dialog about books.

Evidence is a cultural tool for engaging in a variety of knowledge production practices including observation, inference making, argumentation, persuasion, and explanation. Identifying and using evidence, as called for in many learning standards, is necessary but not sufficient for understanding the concepts and purposes of evidence. Before identifying and using evidence, learners need to be engaged as researchers of knowledge production. It is only through studying evidence in the context of knowledge production that learning the processes and tools of this human activity becomes relevant to learners. By learning to identify and use evidence in the context of knowledge production students can build a deep understanding of the origins and purpose of evidence, which is necessary for generating intrinsic motives for critical use.

This paper examines the implications of a seven‐week programme of repeated readings on the fluency levels of three struggling adolescent readers. The study focused from a broad conceptualization of fluency which recognizes that practice and assessment should address all components of fluency, i.e., prosody and comprehension, as well as rate and accuracy. In keeping with this broad understanding of fluency, the methodology used included multiple assessment measures and a range of qualitative data gathered from the three adolescent participants throughout the seven‐week programme. The limitations of fluency practice which fails to address a complex definition of fluency emerge as significant. The findings indicate that success also lies in the potential of instructional programmes to enable students to uncover meaning in text by becoming more strategic when reading, both orally and silently, through increased levels of self‐directed learning. Free author podcast