Maryland School Performance Program Instructional Update Vol. The complex process of becoming independent readers requires both the automatic application of sound-symbol relationships, and the ability to construct meaning from text. Reading is an interactive process of constructing, extending, and examining meaning using language, life, print, and non-print experiences.
Proficient readers revisit and expand their initial understandings.
Proficient readers apply the reading process well to read a variety of texts. They have developed strategies to comprehend, evaluate, and respond to what they read. Their reading is a lifelong pursuit because proficient readers value the practical benefits and personal enjoyment of gaining meaning from texts. Therefore, all students will become lifelong readers who respond to texts by applying a variety of appropriate strategies to construct, extend, and examine meaning. As a result of these research findings, classrooms across the country are moving away from well-known instructional practices which have endured for 50 years or more, and are being transformed with new instructional practices derived directly from that research.