Ten Things Every Teacher Should Know about Reading Comprehension

This week I am keynoting the California Reading Association and I plan to talk about reading comprehension. There are so many scary statistics these days about reading comprehension, and I see so much bad practice when it comes to teaching kids to think about text, that I hope this will be a timely reminder of some key ideas.

  Some of the things that are scaring me:

1.  Reading First kids are comprehending no better than other children in Title I programs.
2.  Reading First teachers aren't teaching reading comprehension any differently than other teachers.
3.  Instructional interventions for English language learners rarely improve their reading comprehension.
4.  No matter what the intervention, effect sizes are smaller when reading comprehension tests are used to evaluate interventions with the  English language.
5.  Comprehension scores continue to languish for American school students despite lots of educational reform and lots of tax money.

The powerpoint for my California presentation is on this website under powerpoints: Ten Things Every Teacher Should Know about Reading.