Sparked by the Common Core State Standards, teachers and literacy experts are arguing about the role of a time-honored pillar of English/language arts instruction: classroom activities designed to help students understand what they are about to read. The attacks on--and defenses of--"prereading" are unfolding largely in cyberspace, through online forums, blogs, and email exchanges. What's triggering them is educators' reactions to the new standards and two key explanatory resources created by their architects: a set of "publishers' criteria" and videotaped sample lessons. That trio has created an impression in some quarters that the intent of the standards is to "ban"--in the words of one blogger--prereading and instead ask students to approach texts "cold," with no upfront assistance. That would represent a sharp turnabout from current practice. Even as the standards' authors insist that their aim is not to abolish prereading, but to curtail and revamp it, the debates persist, pitting schools of thought on reading instruction against one another. Teachers are asking themselves how to honor the heart of the practice, which is intended to help all students access text from a level playing field, but also to learn from its mistakes. The debates, some in the field say, open the door to a broad-based re-examination of how to approach reading instruction.