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Doing What Works: Evidence-Based Reading Instruction

Teaching children to read is the most important thing our schools do. Yet, for too long, schools have been embroiled in bitter debates about how to teach this most basic skill. Thankfully, in recent years, scientists have evaluated good reading instruction and curricula and determined the best way to teach reading skills effectively to young children. The researchers tell us that 95 percent of all children will learn to read if they are taught using:

• Systematic and explicit instruction in phonics, decoding, comprehension and literature appreciation

• Daily exposure to a variety of texts, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as incentives to read independently and with others

• Vocabulary instruction that emphasizes the relationships among words and among word structure, origin and meaning

• Instruction in comprehension that includes predicting outcomes, summarizing, clarifying, questioning and visualizing

• Frequent opportunities to write

These guidelines have proved effective in even the toughest of classrooms. Many classrooms filled with children considered "difficult to educate" are doing an excellent job, so we know it can be done. President Bush is committed to making sure all elementary school teachers have solid training in these reading guidelines, which is why he has proposed his Reading First initiative. Now that we know what works, we must do what works.

As part of your school system's most important constituency, you should consider calling your local school district or a nearby elementary school to find out if its reading instruction programs employ these proven practices. If it does not, you can refer officials to the reading resources listed at the end of this book.

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Last updated—December 17, 2004 (jer)