Prereading stage - Level at which the student is being read to and is understanding that books contain stories.

Decoding stage - Level in which the student is learning phonics.

Fluency stage - Level in which the student is reading easy materials and decoding is becoming automatic.

Information stage - Level in which the student is reading for pleasure and information. Reading is now a tool to use to reach other learning goals.

High School stage - Level in which the student is now using higher thinking skills and analyze issues from more than one view point.

College stage - Level in which the student in now handling difficult, abstract, and specialized materials. They compare and analyze knowledge from many sources and synthesize for their own thinking and writing.