According to the Eric government site, about 70% of high school students need some form of remediation; the most common problem is that students cannot comprehend the words they read—not that they cannot read them.
Current educational practice focuses on skills more than on content. Â This is especially true when it comes to the teaching of reading in the early grades.
Literacy requires more than mere letter recognition and the ability to read or hear with understanding the most common English words.
Literacy requires cultural knowledge.
The purpose of the “literacy capsule” feature of the American English Doctor is to present information in small, easily absorbed doses. These snippets convey general knowledge that helps make sense of the flurry of words that surround us every day of our lives.
Sometimes the capsules are complete in themselves. Sometimes they contain links to longer articles that provide detail and illustration. They can be used as starting points for various types of lessons.