Evidence-based Reading Instruction

Book excerpt: The Reading First legislation, part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, labels these topics the "five essential components" of reading instruction, and programs funded by Reading First must include these elements. Each state will receive funds that are proportional to the number and percentage of children living in poverty and then host competitions to determine how the funds will be distributed among the districts and schools. In order to aid educators in implementing these components in the early grades, the International Reading Association has assembled Evidence-Based Reading Instruction: Putting the National Reading Panel Report Into Practice, a timely and helpful compilation of articles from its journal The Reading Teacher. The first five sections are grouped according to the five essential components. Each section offers a summary and discussion of the NRP findings, and presents several articles from The Reading Teacher that provide concrete descriptions of the recommended practices. The final section includes articles that employ practices from two or more of the essential components, and the appendixes contain the Association's position statement What Is Evidence-Based Reading Instruction? and a useful list of Association resources cited in the NRP Report. This compilation will help educators implement practices consistent with scientifically based reading research, but more important, it will help teachers make every child a reader.