“Knowledge-building” has become a buzzword in reading instruction. It refers to English/language arts approaches that aim to systematically build students’ understanding of the world—rather than ...

Reading involves the skill of decoding written words into meaning. The first step, decoding, is the process of teaching children how to connect symbols with sounds. In layman’s terms, this is ...

Editor’s Note: Click on the words highlighted in this story to pull up a definition and short research summary. Reading comprehension is a complex endeavor. It’s heavily dependent on learning new ...

Nearly a half century ago, a landmark study showed that teachers weren’t explicitly teaching reading comprehension. Once children learned how to read words, no one taught them how to make sense of the ...

This research was partially funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF). While this problem has received considerable attention, no clear explanation has emerged. In my recent PhD thesis, I ...