Reading

President Bush recently cited the work of the National Reading Panel as the foundation upon which he plans to build his newly proposed "Reading First" literacy initiative. The National Reading Panel has issued an update to its initial report, Teaching Children to Read. The guide, Reading: Know What Works: National Reading Panel Update January 2001, looks at the original findings of the panel in more depth.

The report translates the research-based effective strategies for learning to read into activities for teaching reading. The techniques discussed help teachers match the method of reading instruction to the student's needs and learning style.

The update includes -
An overview of reading instruction

• Skills important to reading achievement
• Different stages that children pass through when learning to read
• Children with special needs

The report is organized into the following seven categories:

1. Understanding Reading Instruction
2. Important Reading Skills (Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Comprehension, & Vocabulary)
3. Reading Readiness
4. Beginning Readers
5. Intermediate Readers
6. Children with Special Needs
7. Grade-by-grade accomplishments

One conclusion from the National Reading Panel discussed in Reading: Know What Works, is that children who are having difficulty learning to read don't require completely different instruction from those who learn with ease. However, these children have been found to benefit from individual attention and expert individual application of teaching methods.

The original report, Teaching Children to Read, is available online from the National Reading Panel at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/smallbook.cfm or toll-free from the NICHD Clearinghouse at 800-370-2943. The January 2001 update, Reading: Know What Works, is available online at www.edpubs.org or from Ed Pubs.

ED Pubs, P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, Md. 20794-1398, 877-4-ED-PUBS voice,
301-470-1244 FAX, Web site: www.edpubs.org,
E-mail:customerservice@inet.ed.gov.