This paper pushes beyond current debates over what is being called the science of reading to articulate a multidimensional complex conception of what is entailed in reading comprehension. Reading comprehension entails not only cognitive processes, but equally important is how issues of identity along multiple dimensions, perceptions of tasks and…

In bilingual elementary classrooms where English is taught as a foreign language, science lessons often prioritize spoken interaction, while reading and writing receive less emphasis. This article explores how Cognitive Discourse Functions (CDFs)--such as defining, explaining, hypothesizing, and evaluating--can support disciplinary and…

This article focuses on young children's misinterpretations of storybook illustrations. Examples of misinterpretations drawn from preschool classrooms are presented and analyzed to explain four kinds of confusion that are typically involved. Based on these analyses, the authors argue that young children are capable of the reasoning required to…

Connecting reading and writing has important implications for all readers, but particularly for those who struggle in learning to read and write. Based on their work with children who struggle, the authors focus on reciprocal cognitive operations or strategies that draw on sources of knowledge used in both reading and writing. Their aim in this…

Comprehension strategy instruction has been widely studied in the past 10 years. We now know that students who actively engage and interact with text using particular cognitive strategies are more likely to understand and remember more of what they have read. Students who use these strategies are able to access knowledge that is outside the realm…

Latino English learners (ELs) come to elementary classrooms with many English-Spanish cognates in their listening, speaking, reading, and writing vocabularies. Cognates are words that are orthographically, semantically, and syntactically similar in two languages because of a shared etymology. Some cognates are identical in both English and…

This article discusses a study to determine whether primary grade students can learn comprehension processes via hand motions to portray these mental processes. Comprehension Process Motions (CPMs) were designed to provide students with a way to make abstract comprehension processes more consciously accessible and also to give teachers a way to…

This article describes how fifth-grade students created collaborative online learning communities while discussing and responding to literature on an asynchronous message board. At their own initiative, students constructed and posted various types of literature response prompts, which elicited rich responses from their peers. Types of identified…

Third grade children are found to produce more abstract answers when asked about longer reading passages than when questioned about single sentences. (WR)

Reviews materials that teachers and students can use to help build knowledge of topics and word meanings that are essential to reading comprehension. (FL)

Argues that basing comprehension questions on story grammar will help students develop story schema. (FL)

Advocates communicating the conventional wisdom about teaching to researchers so we can reduce the amount of trivial research that is conducted. (HOD)

Argues that metacognition gives a framework for understanding earlier studies on the relationship between reading rate and text characteristics and points toward an explanation for reading flexibility. (FL)