Language and Literacy Beyond Decoding

Evidence-Based Instruction in Grades PreK-6

Rebecca D. Silverman, Kristin Keane

• Publisher: The Guilford Press
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9781462559626
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Elementary Education

Successful reading comprehension requires readers to draw on a range of language comprehension abilities alongside decoding. This timely teacher reference and text explains how language comprehension develops throughout grades PreK–6 and presents evidence-based instructional strategies. The volume reviews innovative ways to conduct content-rich classroom conversations, deliver strategy and text structure instruction, target motivational aspects of comprehension, use assessment to guide comprehension-focused instruction, and more. Ways to support language and reading comprehension with multilingual and multidialectal learners are considered in depth. Ideal for professional learning within a science-of-reading perspective, each chapter provides guiding questions, research reviews, classroom applications, and reflection questions.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• About the Editors
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• 1 From Language to Literacy: The Critical Role of Language Comprehension in Reading Comprehension
• 2 Content-Rich Classroom Conversations That Improve Language Comprehension in the Early Grades
• 3 Gaps and Opportunities for Supporting Language and Comprehension in Early Childhood Classrooms
• 4 From Ears to Eyes: Supporting Reading Comprehension through Systematic Instruction on Listening Comprehension
• 5 Improving Elementary Students’ Reading Comprehension through Structured and Systematic Translation of Research to Practice
• 6 Best Practices for Supporting Motivation during Reading Comprehension Instruction
• 7 Inferencing and Reading Comprehension
• 8 Effects of Language Components on Language and Reading Comprehension
• 9 Hearing Themselves in Books: Using Authentic Children’s Literature to Support the Language of African American Students
• 10 Language and Reading Assessment Practices for Multilingual Learners from Spanish-Speaking Homes
• 11 The Role of Language in Reading Comprehension: Instructional Implications for Teachers of Multilingual Learners
• 12 “What If I Don’t Speak Their Languages?”: Engaging Educators and Multilingual Learners in Collaborative Exploration of the Language for School Literacy
• Index
• About Guilford Press
• Discover Related Guilford Books