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Young children's meaning-focused skills are foundational for reading comprehension and begin to develop prior to formal reading instruction. In this article, we argue for the importance of supporting meaning-focused skills in early childhood classrooms. We describe authentic, real-life examples of engaging preschool children in activities that promote meaning-focused skills and highlight how these align with research. In doing so, we provide insight into what early childhood teachers can do in their classrooms to foster the development of critical skills related to comprehension.

Much attention has been paid to storybook reading as a context for supporting preschoolers' emergent language and literacy. Inferential thinking is essential to listening comprehension and to reading comprehension. Understanding the story deeply and reasoning about events and characters are central to children's enjoyment and to comprehension skills needed for later reading. Preschoolers have capacities for inferential thinking, but little practice-based instruction, except for asking questions, has resulted from the few studies that have explored inferential talk in teacher-child language interactions. We undertook a pilot project with teachers in economically and racially diverse urban classrooms to examine the effects and components of a professional learning experience to support inferential thinking and story comprehension. The article explains important instructional opportunities for fostering story meaning and inferential thinking by leveraging components before, during, and after a read-aloud and demonstrates practice-based examples using children's literature.

Expanding definitions of literacy requires classroom instruction that provides multiple pathways for students to demonstrate their understanding of the content and communicate knowledge. Privileging the use of visual and multimodal texts as valued school communication may create equitable practices for students who are new to English or struggle with literacy for a variety of reasons. The authors explore the roles that the Talking Drawings strategy played in supporting students' content and literacy learning and in their ability to reflect on their new understandings. In seven upper elementary classrooms, students drew pictures before and after focused instruction about a topic and added written reflections about the differences between the two drawings. The results of this study demonstrate how Talking Drawings provided a multimodal pathway for students to access the curriculum, communicate new content knowledge, redirect their content misconceptions, and reflect on their learning.

The authors describe Literary Analysis and Writing, an integrated instructional routine, developed through a formative experiment research project, that prompts students to uncover the deeper meanings of literary texts. The routine weaves together brief preteaching of carefully selected vocabulary words, whole-class assisted reading of text, close reading and discussion guided by high-level text-based questions, and analytic response writing. The authors discuss the research base for each element of Literary Analysis and Writing, present findings that demonstrate the benefits of the routine on third-grade students' performance in comprehension of literature, and detail the teacher researcher's planning for and implementation of each part of the instructional sequence.

In this qualitative study, the authors explored the multimodal responses provided by gifted fifth graders. Students read the novel "Ungifted" by Gordon Korman and responded through writing, drawing, and talking. They preferred plot summaries for their written response and created a new form, visual summary, in which image was dominant. In their conversations, students discussed giftedness and how teachers marginalized them for instruction. Students shared how giftedness, as measured through IQ testing, is variable and can be changed by the context of instruction. Using a book that explicitly considers giftedness offered students an opportunity to make meaning of the text and make connections to their own experiences centered on giftedness.

Fifth graders interpreted the book "Doll Bones" by Holly Black through visual representations from the beginning to the end of the book. Each visual representation was analyzed to determine how students responded. Most frequently, they moved to inferential ways of understanding. Students often visually interpreted emotional plot elements and incorporated words, graffiti, and graphic organizers into their responses.

In the classroom experiences described in this article, grade three students were introduced to storytelling through the interactive read aloud of a mentor text and a storytelling demonstration, followed by daily collaborative activities involving listening, speaking, reading, and writing, culminating in dramatic storytelling performances. The article details a sample instructional sequence used for one week during the daily literacy block, explores how reading and speaking fluency improved, and how deeper story comprehension developed through the processes of talking about the stories, and rehearsing and telling stories for performance. In addition, the collaborative approach to preparing and presenting stories provided a context for strong peer support--socially, emotionally, and academically.

This article explains how to create and use a daybook in the literacy classroom. Readers learn what a daybook is, how the daybook in one fourth and fifth grade classroom is structured, and how students in this classroom use that daybook during reading instruction to engage, record important information, and discuss a text.

Successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards (2010) will require an alignment between learning standards, effective instruction, and the new assessments designed by the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) and Smarter Balanced (SB) consortia. Both the CCSS and the new generation of assessments call for students to comprehend and respond to complex texts using text evidence and high levels of thinking. Traditional test preparation that focused on isolated skills is not likely to be effective in preparing students for success on the PARCC or SB tests. Instead, fruitful practices are likely to be (a) teaching integrated content units, (b) teaching comprehension strategies, (c) providing opportunities for high levels of speaking, listening and thinking about texts, (d) using official writing rubrics, and (e) providing diagnostic interventions for at-risk readers.

In the classroom, teachers have long used videos as an addendum to the instruction they provide. Still, using video is often seen in a negative light and is used sparingly. This column calls upon research from a variety of fields that supports the use of video to enhance literacy instruction in classrooms. Relying on both theory and practice, the authors highlight several promising areas of research that utilize video as a teaching tool to develop comprehension and vocabulary proficiency in tandem with print-based literacy practices. The authors make practical recommendations for teachers looking to incorporate video into the literacy instruction they provide to students in the classroom.

Reciprocal teaching is a researched-based technique that utilizes the comprehension strategies of predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing. This article provides methods of incorporating characters, props, and visual and hands-on tools to encourage and motivate students to learn through reciprocal teaching. Teachers are given activities to use while implementing reciprocal teaching that require very little prep time, but are highly appealing to a range of learners. Responsibilities of both the teacher and the students are addressed, as well as the importance of discussion and assessment. (Contains 3 figures.)

English learners (ELs) often struggle with asking questions in the classroom. They frequently need support to become confident questioners when confusion arises during reading. This skill becomes even more significant when such learners transition into mainstream classrooms. One possible framework for helping ELs make this transition includes the reciprocal teaching strategies of predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. Two of the strategies, questioning and clarifying, provide support for all students, but are of particular note for facilitating the skill of confident questioning by ELs. The kind of foundation that provides effective support of comprehension strategies like reciprocal teaching requires explicit instruction. This article provides a detailed description of the use of reciprocal teaching as a support for guiding ELs into the self-assured role of questioner during the reading of expository text. Examples from transcripts demonstrate the ability of these students to effectively use questioning to facilitate the comprehension of what they read. (Contains 1 figure.)

This study describes a second-grade science curriculum designed to individualize student instruction (ISI-Science) so that students, regardless of initial science and literacy skills, gain science knowledge and reading skills. ISI-Science relies on the 5-E Learning Cycle as a framework and incorporates flexible, homogeneous, literacy skills-based grouping, use of leveled science text, and explicit use of discussion and comprehension strategies. We describe the first unit of the curriculum, "Why Is Soil Important?," and the results of our pretest-posttest study. Results show that students made significant gains in literacy and science learning. Plus, students with weaker science and literacy skills made the same gains, on average, as students with stronger skills. How these strategies might be implemented for other science topics is discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)

Using a science lesson on lunar phases as a basis for discussion, the author suggests ways that teachers can provide literacy instruction on multimodal texts in science. The author asserts that multiple representations are central to the discipline of science, and that students require explicit instruction on how to critically read, evaluate, and design a variety of scientific representations of their own. As students learn to read and write multimodal texts in science and other content areas, they will not only understand each discipline more fully, but also they may be better prepared to read and design multimodal texts in today's digital age in which multiple representations are omnipresent in various communicative mediums. (Contains 1 table.)

It is essential to help foster students' social awareness in addition to their academic skills. Through discussions of stories that emphasize social issues such as racism and prejudice, students have the opportunity to develop and explore their own beliefs. But what do they really learn, and how? In this article, the authors document their efforts to understand children's comprehension, both of socially themed books and of the belief systems they represent. They also describe the supports that must be provided to ensure that students comprehend the plot of a story and the underlying messages. Finally, the authors offer suggestions for supporting children at different levels within the classroom, as well as appropriate books for children of different ages. (Contains 1 table.)

Mastery of content area reading in science and social studies is demonstrated through writing as well as reading. Integrating writing with reading enhances comprehension because the two are reciprocal processes. Therefore, teachers who implement a variety of writing strategies help students better understand content area texts. This article offers a repertoire of writing strategies that content area teachers in grades 4 to 8 can put into practice before, during, and after reading to strengthen students' comprehension and extend their critical thinking. Strategies described include learning logs, quick writes, listen-stop-write, microthemes, framed paragraphs, text boxes, biopoems, word maps, and ABC books. In using them, students "write to learn," thinking about and interacting with text in a variety of ways. Writing to learn engages students, extends thinking, deepens understanding, and continues the meaning-making process. Teacher feedback and evaluation are important in writing to learn. Several examples of rubrics and checklists as techniques for giving feedback are provided. (Contains 5 tables and 3 figures.)

This article describes an intervention program designed at a small rural school in Western Maryland to help word callers (students who can decode words easily but seem unable to comprehend). The ultimate goal of this program was to teach these children to become reflective readers with the confidence to participate in literature discussion groups with peers. The program was divided into three phases: (1) Attending to metacognition; (2) Addressing comprehension strategies; and (3) Fostering literature discussions. Although no formal data collection occurred, changes in behavior, performance, and attitude within both the group and the classroom were observed.

Describes the design and implication of a 10-week unit for third and fourth graders using QARs (Question-Answer-Relationships) to integrate reading and writing tasks and prepare for standardized tests. Concludes that the student-friendly model described here is easy to implement and can be customized for any classroom and grade level. (SG)

Explicit code and comprehension instruction is important for English learners (ELs), and several key findings from research on young ELs learning to read initially in English can offer guidelines for developing effective code-based instruction for these children. The authors of this column address comprehension instruction for ELs, suggesting several principles to guide such instruction. They conclude by reminding readers that explicit code and comprehension instruction represents only one element of a multifaceted framework for robust literacy instruction for ELs.

Explains six tasks which require comprehension of words and which can be used to teach beginning readers. (MKM)

Suggests categorization of words as an alternative to traditional word study. (MKM)

Making inferences is essential to comprehending text. Teachers can ask inferential questions, model their thinking, and teach specific strategies to support upper elementary students in making inferences while reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Individual Story Ending (ISE) is an effective and appealing activity for students of every age. The method requires students—as a group or individually—to devise an ending to an excerpt at a turning point in a fictional narrative. Students can read the excerpt themselves, or the teacher can read it aloud to everyone. The ISE method can be applied to any creative activity and can be developed in various ways. While most teachers already use ISEs, this article suggests ways of building an entire learning process around the method and how ISEs can be used to initiate reading engagement and discussion of different themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wordless picturebooks are most often used in classroom settings as writing prompts or scaffolds for developing language proficiency. This article introduces and describes a teacher‐led instructional practice that we call silent orchestration. The practice provides a place and space for students' personal transactions with wordless picturebooks situated in a community of learners. Silent orchestration has three main components: preparation, guided exploration, and appreciation. Each component is described and illustrated with an extended vignette from a fifth‐grade classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of arguments that knowledge is the key to reading comprehension, we examined the evidence for comprehension strategies instruction. Since the National Reading Panel Report, a number of researchers have reaffirmed the value of including comprehension strategy instruction in the elementary and middle school curriculum. The latest reviews and meta‐analyses indicate that teaching comprehension strategies improves children's and adolescents' reading comprehension. We outline what strategies should be taught, when, how, and how much. Differentiation of instruction is vital because students who struggle to comprehend benefit more from comprehension strategy instruction than students who are already expert readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) that builds on and sustains students' cultural and linguistic practices is important for students' academic achievement and identities. While CSP is applicable to any content area, a critical time to incorporate it is during differentiated reading groups—small‐group contexts that provide explicit code‐based and/or meaning‐making instruction using varying types of texts. This article seeks to help teachers develop a stronger understanding of CSP and how to leverage students' cultural identities and experiences within small groups. We then highlight two differentiated reading group lesson examples to illustrate how to apply the tenets of CSP, along with code‐based and meaning‐making strategies, with a second‐grade group reading Trombone Shorty and another reading Reina Ramos. Additionally, this article provides steps and resources for how to select and teach with culturally sustaining texts to promote students' identities and literacy success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses language comprehension and developing skills with emergent readers, in particular verbal reasoning and language structures, that are necessary for later reading comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We suggest that a healthy literacy diet for beginning readers consists of literacy experiences along a number of dimensions, including experiences with decodable text. As such, this article explores the role of decodable texts in a comprehensive early literacy curriculum that recognizes literacy as a complex, culturally mediated, and multifaceted set of skills. We provide five guidelines for practitioners to use when evaluating decodable texts to be used with beginning readers. As an example of the type of analysis we recommend for selecting quality decodable text, we examine one decodable text for its merit in fulfilling the guidelines described in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When young children of Color from minoritized communities read decodable readers mandated by their school districts, children approach reading the texts with the expectation that the texts will make sense. While decodable readers allow children to apply their knowledge of phonics skills in context to support their word recognition, they tend to lack meaning and are not written in typical oral speech patterns. Therefore, many children may benefit from engaging in weekly instruction using student‐generated decodable readers (SGDRs) that not only support their decoding development but support their reading comprehension as well. The author includes illustrative examples of how first and second‐graders created SGDRs to support their decoding and, simultaneously, their comprehension development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many teachers tirelessly grapple with topics of text selection, evaluation, and comprehension—examining elements of diversity, quality, and kid appeal to empower teachers to select titles for classrooms through a critical lens—under a mandated scripted curriculum. The purpose of this column is to explore and draw upon teachers' knowledge around implementation of global texts with a focus on comprehension and "teaching within the cracks." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students in the 3rd and 4th grade often encounter what has been called a reading "slump" when their class curriculums increasingly ask them to comprehend and learn from texts. Students are more likely to struggle if they have not been offered sufficient opportunities to build world and domain knowledge and engage in challenging comprehension tasks while developing their reading skills. Thus, it is essential to give young readers opportunities to build their world and domain knowledge and to teach them comprehension strategies such as asking questions, paraphrasing, and self‐explaining. This paper introduces iSTART‐Early, an intelligent tutoring system designed to provide instruction and practice opportunities for students to learn comprehension strategies and build knowledge about diverse topics. The theoretical foundations, history and efficacy, and design of iSTART‐Early are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vocabulary knowledge plays a critical role in supporting text comprehension and broader learning across the school day. While school offers opportunities to build vocabulary knowledge, studies have shown that very little time is devoted to vocabulary instruction at the elementary level. This may be, in part, because educators commonly report being unsure of how to support students' vocabulary development. In this article, I present 10 vocabulary talk moves aligned with research on word learning and show how these moves were used in early‐elementary science lessons. Using these vocabulary talk moves can help educators promote word learning across the school day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present some considerations for abandoning decontextualized strategy instruction and instead provide some ideas for how to shape comprehension instruction around the texts we use in the classroom. We offer some guiding theories, some key considerations, and we present examples for classroom teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During recess a conflict occurred between two fourth graders. A peer attempted to mediate unsuccessfully. Frustrated, the student protested, "[Teachers] never listen to us!" The student felt unheard and sought to play a more active role in conflict resolution. This article explores the use of literature to facilitate restorative conversations to foster conflict resolution by honoring all students' voices, perspectives, and experiences. Centering students' voices creates environments that disrupt oppressive systems and cultivate equitable anti‐racist learning spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this manuscript we show how readalouds can significantly enrich student vocabulary and comprehension by demonstrating enhancements that will foster student learning and language development. We anchor our examples to empirical evidence demonstrating that the content of a readaloud (i.e., the what we teach) as well as the quality of the instruction (i.e., the how we teach content during a readaloud) are important and necessary to enhance student learning. We use authentic scenarios to illustrate the difference between a readaloud taught with basic instructional fidelity and a readaloud with basic instructional fidelity that was enhanced with features of instructional quality. Specific steps to action before, during, and after a readaloud using examples from a first grade readaloud science unit are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactive read‐alouds are versatile in that teachers can teach an array of literacy skills through this instructional strategy. However, our observations of six primary grade teachers and prior research revealed that teachers' implementation of interactive read‐alouds varies. Without the necessary planning and preparation for interactive read‐alouds, the richness of this instructional strategy is limited. In this article, we present a planning tool for interactive read‐alouds that teachers can readily adapt for use in their classrooms. We also offer three recommendations. Together the planning tool and recommendations are specific enough to provide guidance yet flexible enough for teachers to modify to meet the learning goals of their specific students. Improving this instructional practice will ensure that all students benefit from the interactive read‐alouds and grow in their phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generating accurate inferences is crucial for the successful comprehension of text and is a skill that needs to be supported starting in the early grades. Teachers can support inference‐making during read‐aloud lessons by asking inferential questions and providing scaffolding and feedback on students' inference‐making. In this article, we describe instructional principles to support students' inference‐making specifically during read‐alouds. We also share findings from our research in K‐2 classrooms that show how inferential questions, scaffolding, and feedback in read‐aloud lessons can support primary‐grade students' inference‐making. Finally, we describe steps to design and implement read‐aloud lessons for supporting the development of inference‐making in primary‐grade students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although much is known about supporting preschoolers' alphabet knowledge, less is known about instructional moves that support preschoolers' narrative comprehension or how preschoolers' developing cognitive skills may support their narrative comprehension development. This school‐university partnership project examined relations of preschoolers' Theory of Mind (i.e., social understanding) and executive function skills to narrative comprehension development in three instructional contexts: inferential, interactive vocabulary‐focused, and typical instruction in preschool classrooms. Structured, inferential comprehension instruction emerged as a promising practice that may support preschoolers' narrative comprehension development. We observed that children who received structured inferential comprehension instruction showed greater responsiveness to the instruction if they were high on cognitive flexibility or Theory of Mind, suggesting that these preschool cognitive skills may be important for developing comprehension. The structured, inferential comprehension intervention is described, as are applications to classroom practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]