Table 1.

Dimensions of Instruction (Context, Grouping, and Management) and Content Areas Associated With Code- and Meaning-Focused Types of Instruction

	Code-focused	Meaning-focused
Teacher/child-managed, Whole class	The teacher is teaching the class how to decode multi-syllabic words by writing them on the white board and then demonstrating various strategies, such as looking for prefixes and suffixes.*	The teacher is reading A Single Shard to the class. She stops every so often to ask the students questions.
Teacher/child-managed, Small group	The teacher is working with a small group of children on spelling (i.e., encoding) strategies.	The teacher and a small group of students are discussing Mr. Poppers’ Penguins and how it is similar and different from Charlotte's Web.
Child/peer-managed, Small group and individual self-managed	Students are working together in pairs to complete a worksheet on dividing multi-syllabic words into syllables.	Students are working individually to revise an argumentative essay using feedback from their peers.
Content areas (in the coding system)	Phonological Awareness Morphological Awareness* Word Identification/Decoding Word Identification/Encoding Grapheme/Phoneme correspondence Fluency*	Print and Text Concepts Oral Language Print Vocabulary Listening and Reading Comprehension Text Reading Writing

^*Note. It can be argued that morphological awareness (Carlisle, 2000) and fluency (Therrien, 2004) might also be considered meaning-focused activities. In our theory of literacy instruction, code-focused activities represent the more automatic processes whereas meaning-focused activities require the integration of the more automatic processes with active construction of meaning of connected text. Hence, code-focused activities are more likely to directly affect aspects of reading related to skill whereas meaning-focused activities are more likely to directly contribute to aspects of comprehension and reading for understanding.