Problem of Practice: How are we explicitly teaching students to draw meaning from texts?
  • How is questioning being used to develop effective comprehension strategies?
  • How is feedback moving the learning forward?

What Are the key things we know and believe?

The education sector has been shaken in recent years... and the trends shaping education bring additional demands and opportunities when it comes to preparing young people for the future.  An ever-growing body of evidence has emerged from decades of research about what works in education to enhance teaching through practices with proven impact.  It is essential that teachers and leaders developing deep understandings and core beliefs.  In doing this  "we need to look beyond simplistic teaching dichotomies to embrace the full complexity of teaching."   (OECD, 2025) What are your core beliefs about teaching reading comprehension? Take a look at what our network thought and see if you agree?

The Key ReadingS

"Comprehension for Emergent Readers: Revisiting the Reading Rope" Kamback and Mesmer (2024). This recent article revisits Scarborough's 2001 model and describes why it's important that emergent readers are presented with the full suite of components. 
"Improving the Quality of Think-Alouds", Ness and Kenny (2015).  What role does thinking aloud play in your classroom instruction? and how could you make the process more effective? A practical read, this article breaks down the process of planning effective think-alouds into three easy-to-follow steps.
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THE PRESENTATION

The presentation was prepared for the network by Carolyn Wallace-Whelan