Whitepaper
The Research behind Word Reading and Readable Text
For beginning readers, word recognition is an obstacle that requires specially designed beginning reading materials. The text diet that beginning readers receive affects their development. Texts should be designed, both individually and at a programmatic level, to enhance learning and growth, with particular focus given to the features of words that are most closely associated with word recognition.
Meet the Experts
Heidi Anne Mesmer
Dr. Heidi Anne Mesmer is a literacy professor at the Virginia Tech School of Education. She works extensively with teachers, schools, and young readers, directing numerous initiatives to improve reading instruction, and studies beginning reading instruction and text difficulty. She is the author of Tools for Matching Readers to Texts, Reading Interventions in Primary Grades, and Teaching Skills for Complex Texts and has been published in The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly, and more.