During which educational stage do students typically read to learn new ideas?

The Fluent/Comprehending Transitional Reader Stage is characterized by students beginning to read for deeper understanding and to acquire new concepts, rather than just focusing on decoding words. At this stage, learners have typically moved beyond the initial challenges of decoding text and are developing skills that enable them to comprehend and engage with materials more critically. They are increasingly capable of tackling more complex texts and can analyze and interpret information, which allows them to learn new ideas effectively.

In contrast, the Beginner Reader Stage primarily focuses on basic reading skills, such as letter recognition and phonetic decoding. During the Decoding Reader Stage, students are still refining their ability to sound out words but might not yet be exploring content or ideas in-depth. The Expert Reader Stage, while involving a high level of comprehension and analytical skills, pertains to advanced readers who are often engaging with complex texts confidently, which typically comes later than the transitional stage. This progression of skills must be understood holistically; as students develop their reading abilities, they naturally progress through these stages, leading up to learning from reading in the Fluent/Comprehending Transitional Reader Stage.