Students who read with understanding at an early age gain access to a broader range of texts, knowledge, and educational opportunities, making early reading comprehension instruction particularly critical. This guide recommends five specific steps that teachers, reading coaches, and principals can take to successfully improve reading comprehension for young readers.
1
Teach students how to use reading comprehension strategies.
This practice guide was prepared for the WWC by Mathematica under contract ED-07-CO-0062.
The following research staff contributed to the guide:
Virginia Knechtel, Emily Sama-Miller, Samina Sattar, and Sarah Wissel.
These videos were prepared by WestEd under the Doing What Works Contract (ED-PEP-11-C-0068).
All videos are based on recommendations from the WWC practice guides and are designed to complement the guides.
Timothy Shanahan (Chair)
University of Chicago
Play an interview of Panel Chair, Timothy Shanahan: Reading for Meaning (5:34 minutes)
This infographic provides examples from three practice guides about elementary school instruction in reading that can be implemented for free or at a low cost in remote learning settings.
This REL Midwest video features an extended interview with Tim Shanahan, Ph.D., from the University of Illinois at Chicago. This interview includes research-based WWC recommendations about how to teac...
This REL West video demonstrates how to facilitate an interactive readaloud of a story with young students in a face-to-face or distance learning environment.
This protocol guided the review of research that informed the recommendations contained in the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, published in September 2010.