What we’ve learned about students and reading:
Students almost always think that they know how to read, but relatively few know how to read critically.  They don’t usually approach reading systematically.  They just do it, and they think it’s an obvious, natural, simple process.  
Scholars are not always conscious of how we read, because we’ve internalize and naturalized our own systems and methods.  In order for us to teach our students to think of reading in systematic ways, we need to be more self-aware about our own reading practices.  We need to recognize that what seems like an obvious and simple process to us has to be learned, and we have to teach it (not just assume that students will catch on along the way or that they’re just stupid not to know – see Wineburg).
Students begin our courses with different levels of expertise as readers.  Students’ prior learning about reading may or may not help them read well in our courses.  As teachers, we have to figure out how to build on what students already know but also help them overcome bad habits and misunderstandings.
Textual literacy involves a set of basic skills that are, to a large extent, transferable among different kinds of texts (literary, documentary, visual, material).  Those basic skills include identifying what kind of text one is dealing with; being attentive to the context of creation, initial reading, and one’s own reading; and noting details of context, style, and structure.
Students often don’t know how to read for significance.  They don’t know how to weigh information and separate the important from the trivial.
Students don’t know how to make connections among multiple texts or to connect texts with their historical contexts.
Critical reading is a process that involves moving from initial response to questioning and contextualizing.  The process also involves finding a balance between developing hypotheses and deferring reaching conclusions.
Students read better when they are reflective about their own reading practices; students learn better when they are reflective about their own learning experiences. 
Textual literacy doesn’t just happen.  It has to be taught and learned, and that’s a gradual, incremental process.  Students’ reading ability improves if we show them how to do it, offer opportunities for them to practice, and coach them as they go.