Research into the reading process has shaped an understanding of how readers "make meaning" when they are engaged in a reading activity. This research has highlighted a learning triad--the reader, the text, and the context (or learning environment)--that interactively affects the manner in which the student will comprehend a particular text. Research also permits reading teachers to consider such prereading characteristics as the role of background knowledge, reader/text interaction during reading, and the review, recall, and student response activities that occur after the text has been processed. Similarly, in examining instruction it seems particularly helpful to consider the variety of strategies that readers need to use at each of these three stages in the reading process. Instructional activities before reading might focus on the vocabulary and conceptual knowledge appropriate for a specific task. They could include prequestions, analogy, and the idiosyncratic associations students tend to make in an attempt to relate what they already know to what will be contained in the text. Activities during reading might focus on helping the reader develop self-questions or respond to inserted questions. Activities following reading might focus on post-questions, student response, and text- and script-based recall. The most important point to remember is that when instruction focuses on strategies--on how a student interpreted a certain idea and arrived at a certain response--then the student will be more likely to learn to cope effectively with a wide variety of reading tasks as an independent reader. (HOD)