General Literacy Links

• Washington, D.C. Receives $4.7 Million in Reading Grant Funds: Press Releas
• Report of the National Reading Panel "Teaching Children to Read". Reviewing over 100,000 studies on reading, The National Reading Panel (NRP) found five components essential to a child's learning to read: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. This comprehensive report explains the methodology and scientific research used by the NRP in its effort to assess the best ways to teach children to read. This 480-page report contains an executive summary from each subgroup that introduces the topic area, outlines the group's methodology, and highlights the questions and results from each subgroup.
• Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Learn to Read. Addresses five areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.
• Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children's Reading Success. This guide, developed by the National Research Council, explains how children learn to read and how adults can help them.

Literacy Resources for Parents

• Helping Your Child Become A Reader . Features dozens of fun activities parents can use to build the language skills of young children (infants through age 6). Includes a reading checklist, typical language accomplishments for different age groups, suggestions for books, and resources for children with reading problems or learning disabilities.
• Put Reading First: Helping Your Child Learn to Read, A Parent Guide. Tells what parents can do at home to help young children become better readers. Also, describes what parents should expect to see at school.
• Reading Tips for Parents . Tells how to help children get ready to read and to learn, what to look for in early reading programs, simple strategies for creating strong readers, and the five essential components of reading.