Once the child begins to actually read, the best predictor of future reading growth is current reading achievement--Does he continue to progress?

The most critical indicators for children of good progress in learning to read during the early elementary period (first-second grade) are measures of word reading skill. Can they decode the words?  Children who end up as poor readers at the end of elementary school are almost invariably those who fail to make normal progress in these skills during the first years of elementary school. These children are most frequently impaired in both the ability to apply phonetic strategies in reading new words and in the ability to retrieve sight words from memory. They not only have difficulty becoming accurate in the application of these processes but also they frequently have special difficulties with becoming fluent in their application.

Usually a first priority, then. . .

• once children begin reading, and
• after you feel confident they know how to use their decoding strategies to read words, and
• assuming, too, that they are at least half way through first grade,

This, of course, assumes they understand the language they are reading. It assumes they can speak the language well, and that their vocabulary development, their language development, is sufficient (and keeps developing) so that it does not hold them back when they try to read and understand the book or page they hold in their hands.  When they read, they need to make language connections, using language.  Teachers must continue to read aloud to their students and to consciously develop vocabulary, so that what children read will  make sense to them.

Read: What to do with children who do not speak English: http://www.education.sfasu.edu/ele/classes/abel/318esl.html

See what it feels like to be able to decode the words easily yet find it difficult to understand what you are reading due to a vocabulary block--enough unfamilar words and PK where it begins to interfere with your comprehension.  As children get older, their reading may be hindered if their vocabulary development does not 'keep up'.
 

Now it should be simple for you to see that

There are 2 things necessary for  Reading Comprehension: according to  Gough's "simple view of reading" (1996)  1) knowing what the words mean/ good vocabulary (language) development and background knowledge to support understanding of  those words 2) quick word recognition / fluency ability to accurately and quickly identify the words with prosody P.A.C When one of these areas presents a problem for a child, we call this the Primary Area of Concern, and take steps to remediate.  When we can improve the area of weakness, it can be surprising how easily the comprehension problem lifts!

Note of caution:
Knowledge and active application of specific reading strategies is required to maximize reading comprehension (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1997) but most of the variability among children and adults in comprehension of written material can be accounted for by measuring the two broad families of skills identified in Gough's simple view (Hoover & Gough, 1990). That is, good general language comprehension and good word reading skills are the most critical skills required for effective comprehension of written material.
 http:/ /www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/torgeson_catchthem.html
Since language is developed by reading and being read to, it seems that once we have a reader, we need to find ways to get him to read!
 

Motivation (authentic purpose) is critical. We must be careful not to turn kids off to reding while we try to help and support them.  How can we 'lure' kids to read, and read again, and ultimately, read when no one is watching?  That is your challenge, teachers!