This practical book grows out of a recent report written by the RAND Reading Study Group (RRSG), which proposed a national research agenda in the area of reading comprehension. Here, RRSG members have expanded on their findings and translated them into clear recommendations to inform practice. Teachers gain the latest knowledge about how students learn to comprehend texts and what can be done to improve the quality of instruction in this essential domain. From leading literacy scholars, the book explains research-based ways to: * Plan effective instruction for students at all grade levels * Meet the comprehension needs of English language learners * Promote adolescents' comprehension of subject-area texts * Understand the complexities of comprehension assessment and * Get optimal benefits from instructional technologies Table of contents: * Reading for Comprehension (Snow and Sweet) * Comprehension Instruction: Adolescents and Their Multiple Literacies (Alvermann and Eakle) * The Reading Comprehension Development and Instruction of English-Language Learners (Garcia) * Individual Differences as Sources of Variability in Reading Comprehension in Elementary School Children (Vellutino) * What Do Readers Need to Learn in Order to Process Coherence Relations in Narrative and Expository Text? (Graesser, McNamara, and Louwerse) * Collaborative Approaches to Comprehension Instruction (Palincsar) * Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction: Practices of Teaching Reading for Understanding (Guthrie) * Taking Charge of Reader, Text, Activity, and Context Variables (Gaskins) * Electronic and Multimedia Documents (Kim and Kamil) * Professional Development in Reading Comprehension Instruction (Dole) * Assessment of Reading Comprehension: Researchers and Practitioners Helping Themselves and Each Other (Snow) * A Research Program for Improving Reading Comprehension: A Glimpse of Studies Whose Findings Will Aid the Classroom Teacher in the Future (Sweet).