Foundational Skills Undergird Everything We Say, But They Aren’t Our Focus We were surprised by the positive reception of Know Better, Do Better: Teaching the Foundations So Every Child Can Read. A lot of teachers have told us that they found it friendly and helpful. They’ve told us it doesn’t make them feel guilty for the things they didn’t know. They’ve told us it laid the groundwork for learning about reading. And that’s gratifying. We suspect their response was largely due to how forthright we were about overhauling a public school, and highlighting the mistakes we made. Between the two of us, we’ve worked in schools for more than 50 years. That’s a lot of time to make mistakes! But that book was only about one aspect of reading: foundational skills. Though we don’t discuss those skills in this book, their importance is hovering in the background. When students haven’t attained solid foundational skills, you can still build their comprehension and confidence, and we show you how. Foundational skills, essential as they are, are just part of the reading story. This book tells the rest of the story. In Closing... In Part I, we show you how to punch up students’ knowledge of the world, vocabulary, and understanding of how words and sentences work—the essential building blocks of reading comprehension.
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KNOW BETTER, DO BETTER: COMPREHENSION
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