Reading comprehension is the goal of reading, and making inferences is vital. Authors usually expect readers to make multiple types of inferences, including anaphoric, background knowledge, predictive, and retrospective. Common core assessments include all of these, yet instructional materials focus mostly on only one type, retrospective. This…

Purpose: In this discussion as part of a response to Catts and Kamhi's "Prologue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Activity" (2017), the authors provide selected examples from 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade texts to demonstrate, in agreement with Catts and Kamhi, that reading comprehension is a multifaceted and complex ability. The…

Comprehending expository reading material is a challenge for many students. Research has shown that students' expository reading comprehension can improve with the help of text structure instruction. The purpose of this article is to present teachers with a framework for effectively implementing text structure instruction in their classrooms.…

Frequently, when assigned to read, intermediate and middle grade students engage in a mindless encounter with the text. Or, try as they may to focus and gather information, they're mostly confused and not sure how to repair the breakdown in their meaning-making. With the new focus on close reading--and on engaging students with more rigorous…

Explicit pedagogy that focuses on visual design and composition principles can affect students' responses to and understanding, interpretation and analysis of images, as well as the creation of their own visual representations. This article considers the why, the what, and the how of teaching various visual elements of art and design to students…

In preparation for her school's celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, Elizabeth Brown developed an integrated language arts and social studies one-week unit of study on the civil rights movement, where she reinforced reading, writing, and speaking skills. The overarching goals for the five-day lesson on Dr. King's "I Have a…

The article details the transformation of one literature discussion group reading the story, Felita, by Nicholosa Mohr. The research study documented the process of implementing literature discussion groups with multicultural children's literature in a fourth grade English language arts classroom. Through a discussion of a critical incident in the…