Exam Preparation

An excellent summary, complete with video clips, of how to determine developmentally appropriate literacy strategies for emergent readers.

Big Ideas in Beginning Reading focuses on the five BIG IDEAS of early literacy: phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency with text, vocabulary, and comprehension. The web site includes definitions and descriptions of the research and theories behind each of the big ideas, describes how to assess the big ideas, gives information on how to teach the big ideas including instructional examples, and finally, shows you how to put it all together in your school.

An excellent archive that has up to date scientifically based research on solid early reading practices.

This brief provides background information on scientifically based
research on reading, the findings of the National Reading Panel,
elements to consider when selecting or implementing a reading program,
considerations for students with disabilities, and resources on
commercially available reading programs.

In this article Rick Wormeli makes the argument that, in order to differentiate instruction, teachers should be experts in four areas: the students, the curriculum, cognitive theory,and differentiated instruction practices.

This article from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development gives an excellent overview of the need for planning for differentiating instruction, strategies for lesson planning and techniques for implementing in the classroom.

Carol Ann Tomlinson offers a rationale for differentiating instruction and practical steps for differentiating in the reading classroom.

The leader in the field of differentiating instruction, Carol Ann Tomlinson, summarizes the importance of differentiating and gives theoretical and practical tips on how to do it in the classroom.

Free-Reading is an “open source” instructional program that helps teachers teach early reading. Because it's open source, it represents the collective wisdom of a wide community of teachers and researchers. It's designed to contain a scope and sequence of activities that can support and supplement a typical “core” or “basal” program.

This
straight forward article presents information on the link between strong
phonemic awareness and reading and gives practical suggestions for fostering
strong phonemic awareness.

A straight-forward article that details what to look for when reading scientifically-based reading research.

A concise description of current models of phonics instruction with clear outlines of instructional techniques that are prevalent within each model.

This primer discusses and summarizes studies varying from readings and phonics instruction, fluency, and the improvement of reading comprehension.

This site provides a general introduction to, and links regarding, expository texts. This site also provides a good introduction to text structure and explores strategies for recognizing text structure in expository writings.

A step by step ‘workshop’ that addresses the basics of phonic awareness.

In 1997, Congress asked the Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), in consultation with the Secretary of Education, to convene a national panel to assess the status of research-based knowledge, including the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching children to read. These topics (which correspond almost exactly to the domains defined by the American Board) received intensive study: alphabetics, fluency, comprehension, teacher education in reading acquisition, and reading-focused computer technology. This document is the result of that extensive

This is an excellent overview of the importance of fluency and its connection with comprehension. The information provided gives a detailed definition of fluency and offers tips on encouraging fluency in readers.

Annenberg
has created an online video library to help teachers improve their teaching
strategies.  There are twelve video
sessions with a focus on classroom practices and profiles of students over
time.  This excellent resource mixes a
deep theoretical understanding with practical classroom applications. There is
also an excellent list of terms included within this site.

An excellent source for up to date reading research, organized by grade level, sponsored by the University of Connecticut. There are also great resources on special topics such as early literacy, adolescent literacy, and assessment.

A practical brochure that concretely presents the qualities of scientifically based research.

In this book educators will find
information on how to teach students to read based on evidence from a
broad base of effective, well-designed research. Topics have been
updated and added to better reflect current thinking in the field and
address issues that have come to national and international attention
for a number of reasons, including the recently released U.S. National
Reading Panel report.