ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how the materials school administrators select must engage and motivate young children while also supporting their development as critical thinkers about text. The Reading Rope metaphor is a helpful way to recognize how comprehension is comprised of many strands that are woven together to produce strategic and automatic reading. The construction integration model allows us to fully understand how each of the language comprehension strands of the Reading Rope is woven into the comprehension process. Vocabulary knowledge has a strong correlation to reading comprehension and further supports children's ability to decode and identify words. If a reader lacks background knowledge on a text and/or the text is filled with complex vocabulary, the comprehension process might be onerous, even if the reader is intentionally using cognitive strategies for support.
