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Grant Wiggins recently wrote what is clearly the best piece out there on reading comprehension research: On reading, Part 2: what the research REALLY reveals.
He’s promised to write a Part Two soon, also, which I — and I’m sure, many other educators — are looking forward to seeing (he just has – On reading, Part 4: research on the comprehension strategies – a closer look).
On literacy and strategy, part 6: my first cut at recommendations is another great post by Grant Wiggins.
I figured that his post would make a “Best” list like this timely.
In addition to his first post and his soon-to-be-published next one, here are a few others that I think belong on this list. I hope that readers will share more in the comments:
I’ll being with other related “Best” lists I’ve published:
The Best Posts & Articles About Why Book “Leveling” Is A Bad Idea
The Best Resources Documenting The Effectiveness of Free Voluntary Reading
The Best Resources On “Close Reading” — Help Me Find More
My Best Posts On Metacognition
Here are two other related posts I’ve published:
How Reading Strategies Can Increase Student Engagement
Great Website “Into The Book” Updated
How to help English learners read more quickly is from The British Council.
Reading Strategies, Student Engagement, & The Question Of “Why?”
Educator Cornelius Minor has graciously shared some helpful sheets for teaching reading comprehension.
‘The Reading Strategies Book’: An Interview With Jennifer Serravallois the second in my series of author interviews at Education Week Teacher.
Very Good Interview With Literacy Expert Tim Shanahan
Teaching Your Students to Read Like Pros is from Edutopia.
Can I Still Rely on the National Reading Panel Report? is an excellent post from literacy expert Timothy Shanahan. I certainly still rely on it, and it was great to read that follow-up studies have found that its recommendations work for English Language Learners, too.
Improving reading comprehension through strategy instruction is from The Education Endowment Foundation.
When Readers Struggle: Reading Comprehension, Part 3, Talking and Writing After Reading is from Russ on Reading.
New Meta-Analysis Identifies Instructional Strategies To Help Struggling Adolescent Readers
Supporting All Learners with Complex Texts is from Achieve The Core.
New Study Finds Having Students Make Predictions Enhances Learning
Comprehension Skills or Strategies: Is there a difference and does it matter? is from Timothy Shanahan.
Big New Study On Reading Instruction
Improving Reading Skills Through Talking is from Edutopia.
Teach Reading Strategies ‘Little & Often’ is the headline of one of my Education Week Teacher columns. In it, A three-part series on using reading strategies wraps-up with commentaries from Alex Quigley, Dr. Rebecca Alber, and Khristina Goady.
STUDY FINDS THAT READING INSTRUCTION MORE EFFECTIVE WHEN PAIRED WITH MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES
Questioning the Author: Unlocking and Weaving Together Knowledge Rich Text is from Mr. G MPLS.
Two reasons why I have kids annotate: 1) Annotating helps kids recognize when their mind is wandering. 2) When students annotate, it helps me see what they know and need. Pointing to an annotation, I can say, “Tell me more about this.” #innervoice
— Cris Tovani (@ctovani) November 12, 2019
Making Annotations with Less Pain, More Meaning is by Sarah Cooper.
The Skill, Will, and Thrill of Reading Comprehension is by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey.
Don’t Stop Teaching Comprehension—Just Embed It In Content appeared in Forbes. It’s a little bit all over the place, but makes some good points.
THE VALUE OF ORAL READING IN PARTNERS FOR ELLS & OTHERS
Distance Learning: Improving Instructional Interactions in Guided Reading Lessons is from Timothy Shanahan. It has some good ideas for ELLs and everyone else.
💻Remote 🏠 & hybrid 🏫 learning have caused a sharp ⬆️ in #DigitalReading. Because it’s different from print, we need to know #DigitalReadingStrategies. @irina_mcgrath & I created this graphic with resources to help. #JCPSESL #edtech #ESL #Read
Copy⏬https://t.co/77Z69rTO8T pic.twitter.com/PnkbYDAgVD
— Michelle Makus Shory (@michelleshory) December 8, 2020
How High School Teachers Can Support Students with Reading Difficulties is from The American Educator.
An Active Reading Strategy for Any Learning Landscape is from Catlin Tucker.
Teaching reading – Embedding comprehension strategies is from The Education Endowment Foundation. It has a helpful graphic, though it’s blurry and not easy to read.
Quote Of The Day: A Good Explanation For Why To Use Reading Strategies
4 Reading Strategies to Retire This Year (Plus 6 to Try Out!) is from Edutopia.
Do You See Visualization as an Effective Reading Comprehension Strategy? And, for Whom? is by Timothy Shanahan, who basically says it works for older readers and not for very young ones.
If you💜Say Mean Matter✨& Book Head Heart ✨ you will ❤️ the new infographic @michelleshory & I created for you. It includes strategies to enhance comprehension & promote deep reading 📚 #ELL2point0
📌https://t.co/2awXwIbU5I pic.twitter.com/3KJA5BNf8G— Irina McGrath, Ph.D. (@irina_mcgrath) October 12, 2021
New Study Examines What Helps Students Most With Reading Comprehension
5 STRATEGIES FOR READING COMPLEX TEXTS is from The Confident Teacher.
How to Provide Effective Reading Instruction is a new report by Timothy Shanahan and published by The World Bank.
Teaching Kids to Interpret Theme — You Really Can Teach Comprehension is from Timothy Shanahan.
No Surprise That New Study Finds Summarizing Is Effective Learning Strategy
While reading comprehension strategy instruction may be of limited value, specifically teaching students how to make inferences seems to improve general comprehension (d=0.58), inferential comprehension (d=0.68) and literal comprehension (d=0.28):https://t.co/CFSkhb9QLn ($)
— Dylan Wiliam (@dylanwiliam) March 17, 2023
Should you teach comprehension skills or strategies and what’s the difference?https://t.co/BKl6RdEwID pic.twitter.com/i1dWsB8Gwl
— Timothy Shanahan (@ReadingShanahan) April 1, 2023
The Active Ingredient in Reading Comprehension Strategy Intervention for Struggling Readers: A Bayesian Network Meta-analysis is a new study that offers some interesting findings (it’s also not behind a paywall):
Results showed (1) instruction of more strategies did not necessarily have stronger effects on reading comprehension; (2) there was no single reading comprehension strategy that produced the strongest effect; (3) main idea, text structure, and retell, taught together as the primary strategies, seemed the most effective; and (4) the effects of strategies only held when background knowledge instruction was included. These findings suggest strategy instruction among students with reading difficulties follows an ingredient-interaction model—that is, no single strategy works the best. It is not “the more we teach, the better outcomes to expect.” Instead, different strategy combinations may produce different effects on reading comprehension. Main idea, text structure, and retell together may best optimize the cognitive load during reading comprehension. Background knowledge instruction should be combined with strategy instruction to facilitate knowledge retrieval as to reduce the cognitive load of using strategies.
A Guide for High School and College Students is by Dan Willingham.
Positive signs for ‘outlining’ as a (generative) learning strategy… both student-generated and teacher-provided ⤵️https://t.co/ZxKgHDWnod (🔒) pic.twitter.com/kcAyhvPFSm
— Peps (@PepsMccrea) June 13, 2023
Great article by @buckingham_j https://t.co/Uu9YVtYE9T
— Nate Joseph (@NateJoseph19) June 24, 2023
Teaching Reading through Critical Comprehension is from Corwin Connect.
This is the best piece I’ve ever read on the role and importance of reading strategies https://t.co/Obic4ch7iU
— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) July 22, 2023
Fantastic (FREE!) resource launched today on teaching reading. Multimedia rich, grounded in research, practical support for instruction. I’m proud to be an advisor on the project. This was years in the making. Thank you, @wetatvfm and @AFTunion.
Let’s Go! https://t.co/aQp0JO0ibl— Kareem J. Weaver (@KJWinEducation) July 22, 2023
Reading comprehension strategies for students with reading difficulties is from Evidence In Brief.
2 key takeaways:
1️⃣ “Reading comprehension should be taught with texts worth reading – texts from which we want students to gain knowledge.”
2️⃣ “Three kinds of instruction paid off the most: summarizing, developing an understanding of text structure, and/or paraphrasing.”
— Kate Winn (@thismomloves) December 2, 2023
I’ll be updating this list with other resources I find and others that people suggest…
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