Students need opportunities to read from a variety of kinds and levels of reading materials. Reading programs should consist of a variety of reading opportunities for students. Teachers support their students strategic reading through lessons that attend explicitly to how to think while reading . This support can be provided through teacher modeling, coaching and scaffolding student responses, and encouraging students articulation of and reflection on their own learning.
Oral language is the foundation of reading and writing.
Early attempts to read and write are influenced by oral language. Oral language provides children with a way to tell us whether or not they understand what they read. It is also a means of expanding their understanding through discussions with peers and teachers. Without the opportunity to talk about what they read, children lose an opportunity to extend their knowledge. In Building a Knowledge Base in Reading , Braunger and Lewis cite a number of studies which support oral response to text .