Education - Readers and Reading

After a brief introduction to the contentious nature of differing views on reading instruction, the article examines research on literature-based reading instruction that has proven successful at teaching children not only the skills of reading, but also the joy of reading.

The article discusses the significance of literacy education at the adolescent and secondary level and the challenges seen in educational statistics in the United States as of 2009. Details are given highlighting research asserting that segments of U.S. teens are below their grade-level in reading ability and that such deficiencies will lead to long-term professional challenges. Connections are made between advanced literacy skills and academic achievement, finally linking to socio-economic success..

The concept of emergent literacy refers to the process through which a child develops an understanding of the functions of language, symbols and print.

Research shows that children whose families encourage at-home literacy activities have higher phonemic awareness and decoding skills higher reading achievement in the elementary grades, and advanced oral language development

This essay discusses the history of phonics and its role in reading education programs

Anoverview of reader-response teaching methods, which follow a theory of epistemology that focuses on how readers make knowledge or meaning by reading a short story, novel, poem, or other text.

Critical lessons that share a transactional view of early literacy development are synthesized. A transactional view of reading and writing means that literacy as a meaning construction process, and that within a given literacy event, both the text and the reader are changed.-- abstract.

An overview of the concept of Whole Language, a philosophy of language that was a major part of the reading and writing curriculum during the mid-1970's to the mid-1990's.