We know that to be good readers, students need two complementary sets of skills: word recognition and language comprehension. While there is a great dela of focus on word recognition skills especially phonics, language comprehension is now receiving much more attention because it also requires explicit instruction. This article from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, discusses a recent study on the gap between reading comprehension research and what actually happens in classrooms. And this is still a significant gap. The article lists the four most effective reading comprehension instructional strategies: developing word meaning knowledge, developing background and general knowledge, engaging students in text based collaborative learning, engaging students in high quality discussion of texts, especially complex texts. These strategies are not just for the English lesson! For more information read the article. How many of these strategies do you use and how often?