Key Principles in Effective Reading Instruction

Students learn best in an organized social setting that is designed to capture the power of
collaboration and shared ideas. Their ongoing development as readers and writers is
nurtured in a community that is fundamentally based on the following key principles that
guide instructional decision making. These principles are adapted from Fountas and
Pinnell’s text, Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Thinking, Talking and Writing
about Reading.

1. Students learn to read from reading continuous text. Although there are many
times in the day when students will be focused on word study or vocabulary or
discussion of text, it is essential that they spend significant time each day
processing continuous text. They need a massive amount of practice solving
words “on the run” while maintaining meaning. Only by reading can they learn to
integrate and orchestrate the strategies needed to process text efficiently.

2. Students need to read high-quality texts to build a reading process. Engaging

texts are their own reward. Every teacher must have a classroom collection
stocked with a variety of genre and levels of challenge. The entire collection
should be of literary quality offering students captivating and well-written texts
that they will enjoy and remember. These books will expand children’s language
and thinking abilities and will encourage them to seek and prefer texts of high-
quality.
3. Students need to read a variety of texts to build a reading process. As they
encounter texts that make different demands, students become more flexible. A
steady diet of any one kind of text will not help children adjust their reading
behaviors to accommodate different kinds of texts. An effective processing system
is created over time in response to the variety of reading tasks and purposes
teachers design for their students.

4. Students need to read a large quantity of texts to build a reading process.

Quantity matters. Students must do a lot of reading every day in order to make
progress at a grade level pace. The more texts they read, the more information
they have to bring to their reading.
5. Students need to read different texts for different purposes. All reading involves
using strategies like decoding words and making predictions, but effective readers
know how to vary what they do given the purpose they have for reading. Students
may be completely engrossed in a suspenseful page-turner, or slowly reading and
rereading the lines of a complex poem. They may skim through the bold words
and headings to get the gist of an article of interest or read more carefully and
deliberately if joining a group for discussion following the task. Your purpose for
reading influences the kind of reading you do. Students must have the opportunity
to read for a variety of purposes and become aware of the changes they make in
their processing to achieve that purpose.

6. Students need to hear many texts read aloud. Reading to students plays an
essential role at all grade levels. When students listen to someone read, they are
free from some of the aspects of reading (decoding and pronouncing words for
example) and can concentrate on meaning. Hearing a text read aloud expressively
also provides a model of the fluency and expression students must use in their
heads as they read to themselves.

7. Students need different levels of support at different times. Students at every

grade level are still learning how to read. They are encountering higher levels of
sophistication as demanded by increasingly difficult texts. In order to take on
these new challenges, students will need the support of small group instruction
and individual conferencing. These needs will vary by student and by text. A
responsive classroom provides the right amount of support to students with
ongoing and timely feedback as they make progress.

8. “Level” means different things in different instructional contexts. The precise

text gradient (levels A to Z) is important in some contexts but not in others. In
read aloud for instance, the content of the text is more important in choosing a
good text than the level. A teacher is trying to promote thinking and discussion
about literary elements and thematic issues appropriate for students of a particular
age. In guided small group instruction, text level is very important as it challenges
students’ growing control over the reading process at this moment. When reading
independently, students must be able to process text fluently, smoothly and with
good comprehension and so “level” is an important factor in selecting text. There
are times when background knowledge and high interest can overcome some of
the processing difficulties students may have with a challenging text, but as a rule,
students must be reading engaging texts that they can read with little or no
support.
9. The more students read for authentic purposes, the more likely they are to make
a place for reading in their lives. As much as possible, reading and writing
experiences in the classroom need to mirror the real purposes and types of texts
used by readers and writers in the outside world. Students must read to satisfy
their own informational needs, to identify their favorite authors and genres, and
pursue their personal interests through reading, writing and talking with others.

10. Students need to see themselves as readers who have tastes and preferences.
Because teachers have intentional instruction in mind, and because they know
their students, they will select books for them to as a class or in small groups.
Often they will also guide students’ individual selections so that students learn
how to choose the right books for themselves. But ultimately readers must learn to
make their own choices and choice leads to engagement. A teacher’ goal is to help
students become aware of their own preferences and skills so that they take
ownership for their reading lives.