Offers reading teachers effective strategies for helping students in kindergarten through third grade overcome reading and writing difficulties and become proficient readers.

A comprehensive approach to literacy success -- Effective readers: what do they do? -- Going off track: why and how? -- Reading behavior: what does it tell us? -- Change over time: processing systems in the making -- Text matters: a ladder to success -- Language matters: talking, reading, and writing -- Words matter: building power in vocabulary -- The phonological base for learning to read and write -- Learning about print: early reading behaviors -- Learning to solve words: effective and efficient phonics -- Building and using a repertoire of words -- Extending reading power through writing -- Teaching for problem solving while processing texts: early reading behaviors and searching for information -- Teaching for independence in processing texts: solving words, self-monitoring and self-correcting behaviors -- Teaching for fluency in processing texts: six dimensions -- Teaching for comprehending: thinking before, during, and after reading -- Working successfully with English language learners -- Engaging readers' attention and memory in successful learning -- Engaging readers' emotion and motivation in successful learning -- Keys to effective intervention: success for all children -- Appendix A: ways of thinking about text reading: observing for evidence -- Appendix B: guide for observing and noting reading behaviors -- Appendix C: scoring and coding at a glance -- Appendix D: verbal path -- Appendix E: gradient of texts -- Appendix F: directions for games -- Appendix G: uppercase and lowercase letter recognition sheet -- Appendix H: high-frequency word lists -- Appendix I: alphabet linking chart -- Appendix J: consonant cluster linking chart.