Three main accomplishments characterize good readers. Find out what these accomplishments are, and what experiences in the early years lay the groundwork for attaining them.
From the start, include the principals and provide them with the tools they need to help improve reading achievement. Let’s make it more possible for them to use their leadership skills to work collaboratively and effectively with their school’s reading coaches.
Get an overview of developmentally appropriate teaching practices recommended by the International Literacy Association (ILA) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
In the last few years, an alarm has sounded throughout the nation’s middle and high schools: too many students cannot read well. It isn’t that they don’t know their ABCs or how to read words. It’s that they cannot understand or explain what they’re reading. Johnny can read, but he doesn’t understand.
Browse our resource library (including research briefs and guides), expert Q&A, glossary, quotes about reading, educational apps, books about reading, writing, and instruction — and more!
You may have children in your life who aren’t as successful with reading as they could be. The challenge is that not all reading difficulties look the same, and not all reading difficulties should be addressed in the same way.
In this special Reading Rockets video series, experts answer real questions from families about writing and how to support their children’s literacy at home.
Play with letters, words, and sounds. Hosted by Annette Bening, this episode focuses on how children learn the relationship between sounds, letters, and words as an initial step before being able to decode the printed word. Features children’s book author and illustrator Norman Bridwell (Clifford the Big Red Dog).
Reading expert Linda Farrell works with Calista, an early stage reader, on short vowel sounds, blending and manipulating sounds, reading whole words, and fluency. Ms. Farrell starts by making sure Calista has a strong foundation in short vowel sounds by teaching her hand motions to remember those sounds more easily. After Calista demonstrates she knows short vowel sounds, Ms. Farrell teaches her to change one sound in a spoken word using manipulatives. Finally, Ms. Farrell helps Calista move from sound-by-sound reading to whole word reading.
I thought that reading researchers had the answers that teachers needed. Now I see that teachers have the questions and knowledge of the real-world that reading researchers need to be of service to society.
Get tips and classroom practices for supporting reading instruction for children with hearing loss. Parents can find answers to frequently asked questions about nurturing their deaf child’s literacy growth.
With young children, dictation offers a way for a parent or a teacher to record a child’s thoughts or ideas when the writing demands surpass writing skills. Dictation provides a chance for an adult to model many writing behaviors including handwriting, matching sounds-to-letters to spell words, and sentence formation.
Children come to our classrooms from so many different ability levels and backgrounds. As a teacher, it’s important to recognize and know what to do to help a struggling reader.
Many texts contain language (figurative and literal) that can be a barrier to comprehension. We need to see those language walls and teach students how to scale them so their reading has meaning.
All kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade teachers — as well as reading interventionists — should teach students to keep their eyes on the words on the page so that they do not have to later struggle with breaking a habit that hampers effective, efficient reading.
The challenges of teaching English language learners to read. Hosted by Rita Moreno, Becoming Bilingual examines the challenges of teaching children to read in a new language. We visit six cities across the country to learn about the different ways schools are working to create bilingual readers.
