ABSTRACT
A comprehensive framework of literacy teaching includes, at minimum, the following components: word study and vocabulary development; fluency instruction; comprehension instruction; and writing instruction. In good schools—schools that work for all students—there is consistently high-quality classroom instruction that attends to these components. This chapter focuses more on reading practices than writing practices, although the connection between reading and writing will be addressed. Skills and strategies are only working tools; they have little utility for advancing students’ literacy. As a starting point for using a comprehensive framework of literacy teaching, teachers need to strengthen students’ concepts of reading. Once students’ understanding of the reading process is strengthened, they must realize that they are responsible for examining text and teasing out its significance. Semantic mapping can prepare students to understand, assimilate, and evaluate new information. It helps them develop prior knowledge by seeing the relationships in a given topic.
