Literacy Blogs

Blast from the Past: This piece was first published on May 7, 2022, and was republished on October 25, 2025. The original posting explained the distinction between a comprehension effect and a learning effect. Recently, I published a book on “leveled reading” that addresses this difference more thoroughly (Shanahan, 2025). The failure to make a discernment between these two outcomes has led to many pedagogical failures. Given that, I thought this to be a good time to sharpen the points made here, providing greater clarity and some background information about the source of this unfortunate misunderstanding, along with some specific ...

Teacher question: You say that we should teach students to read with grade level texts. But my professor (I’m working on a master’s degree in reading) says that would be a big mistake since harder texts have been found to lower students’ fluency and comprehension (Amendum, Conradi, & Hiebert, 2017). Your research says one thing and his says something else. How can I sort this out? I kind of think that he is right since my students don’t read as well when I put them in the grade level books. Shanahan response: This is an easy question to answer: I’m right and your ...