Listening comprehension is a more sophisticated ability than reading comprehension, especially early on. Many children understand more complex ideas when they listen than when they read. (Reading Rockets)

The gap between listening comprehension and reading comprehension persists through elementary and even middle school. That has implications for how we teach content across grades. (Reading Rockets)

To move students toward reading complex texts, teachers should also bolster students’ abilities to listen and speak about complex topics. (Reading Rockets)

Academic talk, speaking & listening in content-area contexts, should be frequent. The article recommends using about 50% of instructional time in content area learning for collaborative conversations. (Reading Rockets)

Instructional routines that support speaking and listening include:
• Readers’ Theatre
• Presentations (with feedback)
• Listening stations
• Reciprocal teaching (predict, question, clarify, summarize)
• Digital tools: photo narratives, digital storytelling, etc. (Reading Rockets)

Classrooms need a culture change: students should talk every day about content, not just listen passively. Teachers may need to adjust the environment, routines, expectations, and accountability for student talk. (Reading Rockets)

“Children can listen to and talk about much more complex ideas than they can read (and probably write) about.” (Reading Rockets)

“Oral language development facilitates print literacy.” (Reading Rockets)

“If we want to ensure that students read increasingly complex informational texts, it seems logical that students should be talking during their content area learning …” (Reading Rockets)

“Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.” (Reading Rockets)

“It takes a human being for babies to take their statistics. The social brain is controlling when the babies are taking their statistics.”

“Phonological awareness is a critical early literacy skill that helps kids recognize and work with the sounds of spoken language.” (Basics: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness | Reading Rockets)

“Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.” (Basics: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness | Reading Rockets)

“Phonological and phonemic awareness refer to spoken language- the understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words.” (Basics: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness | Reading Rockets)