THE PRACTICE: Understanding Text Structures
Content Presented By:
Center for Resource Management (CRM)
The Education Alliance at Brown University

The Policy

Adolescent Literacy: A Position Statement
http://www.reading.org/pdf/1036.pdf

Position paper by the International Reading Association (IRA) Commission on Adolescent Literacy (1999) asserts that the ongoing literacy development of adolescents is just as important, and requires just as much attention, as that of beginning readers. The Association believes that adolescent readers have a right to support in seven specific areas outlined in the document.

Reading for Understanding: Towards an R & D Program
http://www.rand.org/multi/achievementforall/reading/readreport.pdf

This report on reading comprehension by The RAND Reading Study Group (January, 2001 draft for review) represents the consensus of fourteen experts in various fields regarding the the next steps for research and development in the area of reading comprehension. It was developed to guide the efforts of OERI to sponsor a coherent research and development program in this critical area.

Teaching Children to Read
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/smallbook.htm

Building upon the work of the National Reading Committee, the National Reading Panel reviewed research studies dealing with key reading issues. Although focused on beginning readers, the report also looks at the connections between vocabulary, reading comprehension, and teacher development that, among others, are important for effective support of adolescent literacy development. This report from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has been used extensively as a policy making tool since its release (2000).

Learning Through Language: A Call For Action in All Disciplines
http://www.sfasu.edu/lalac/brochure.html
This 1997 statement by the Language and Learning Across the Curriculum Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English was also endorsed by the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. It clearly asserts that "No matter what the subject, the people who read it, write it, and talk it are the ones who learn it best."

This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown University. Seed funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Send comments to: loom@alliance.brown.edu