Children who do not master basic reading skills at
an early age, specifically the ability to automatically
decode new words and build vocabulary that leads
to fluency, experience academic failure. ---- In other
words, the curriculum focuses much less on
teaching students to acquire the basic tools of
literacy, and much more on using those tools to
learn content, express ideas, and solve problems. At
this point, students are likely to be given content
textbooks in science and social studies and to read
non-fiction for the purpose of gaining new
information.