Recent studies using graduate students in one case and first graders in the other reached the same conclusion. If instruction capitalizes on what students already know, they learn more readily and transfer the knowledge well. Teachers can use children's knowledge as a bridge to new knowledge. (MT)

It is easy for intermediate students to get the wrong ideas about the purpose of reading. Educators pay so much attention to decoding and fluency in the early years that children sometimes come to believe that flawless and rapid word recognition is the point. As texts get more demanding or unfamiliar, some of the "good readers" in classes begin to…

In this article, the author shares the lessons he learned from Aaron, a 12-year old kid who had never been to school, on the importance of crafting systematic fluency lessons. The following are strategies that worked for them: (1) Demonstrate what fluency sounds and feels like; (2) Read aloud to the students at least three times a day from a…