Effective Strategies for the Teaching of Reading: What works, and why

Marion de Lemos
Honorary Fellow, Australian Council for Educational Research

Introduction
Teaching children how to read and write has always been the primary objective of schooling. However in recent years there has been a questioning of the effectiveness of different approaches to the teaching of reading, as well as concerns that many students fail to achieve effective literacy skills by the end of the compulsory years of schooling.
This has led to a renewed focus on the teaching of reading in the early years of schooling, and the introduction in Australia of new policies and practices which are aimed at improving literacy outcomes.
At the same time there have been significant advances over the past two decades in the research on reading and on the processes underlying the acquisition of reading. This research has led to the questioning of some of the assumptions on which current teaching practices have been based, and has identified some of the critical factors associated with the acquisition of reading skills.