In this special Reading Rockets video series, experts answer real questions from families about reading and writing, and how to support their children’s literacy at home.
Browse our library of research briefs, guides, literacy organizations, and literacy-focused web resources. Filter by topic and resource type to quickly find the resources you’re looking for.
Successful literacy instruction and interventions provide a strong core of highly explicit, systematic teaching of foundation skills such as decoding and spelling skills, as well as explicit teaching of other important components of literacy such as vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. This practitioner-friendly publication will help educators and others better understand the definition, characteristics, and purpose of the term and its affiliated principles and practices.
The summer is a time to unwind and relax for parents and kids alike, but learning should not come to a halt. By focusing on your child’s interests, involving the family, and setting goals, you can motivate even the most reluctant learners
Learn how technology tools can support struggling students and those with learning disabilities in acquiring background knowledge and vocabulary, improving their reading comprehension, and making connections between reading and writing.
This webcast features Isabel Beck, Nanci Bell, and Sharon Walpole discussing the components for developing good reading comprehension skills, identifying potential stumbling blocks, and offering strategies teachers can use in the classroom.
Bilingual speech-language pathologist Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan discusses effective assessment and instruction strategies for English language learners with learning disabilities, as well as ways to help encourage the active involvement of parents of ELLs with LD in their children’s schools.
Avi is the 2003 Newbery Medal award winning author of Crispin: A Cross of Lead, and widely acclaimed for his works of historical fiction for middle grade readers. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, Avi talks about the challenges of writing, his years as a librarian, and his symptoms of dyslexia. He also recalls what it was like to win the 2003 Newbery Medal in this engaging and wide-ranging conversation.
Browse our resource library (including research briefs and guides), expert Q&A, glossary, quotes about reading, educational apps, books about reading, writing, and instruction — and more!
Children with vocabulary weaknesses are especially vulnerable to difficulties with reading comprehension from the middle elementary grades onward. Vocabulary weaknesses may affect school achievement in many areas beyond reading, including written expression, mathematics, and performance in content subjects such as social studies and science.
This is a cautionary tale, not just for people who have no real idea of what a learning disability is and probably suspect the whole thing is an overindulgent scam, but also for any parent of a child struggling mightily through school.
From difficulty recognizing the individual sounds in spoken words to developing and maintaining the motivation to read, here are the most common reasons why children can struggle with reading.
Phonics instruction teaches the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. To read, children need to understand the alphabetic principle — the idea that letters represent the sounds of spoken language. Decoding is when we use letter-sound relationships to translate a printed word into speech.
Patricia Polacco tells warm family tales drawn from her own childhood among an extended immigrant family of grandparents and cousins. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, Patricia Polacco talks about writing and illustrating and the passing down of family history whose themes resonate with readers of all backgrounds.
Learn the basics about text-to-speech, what the research says about how well it supports comprehension, tips on how to get the most out of the technology, and a short list of recommended text-to-speech tools.
