The kind of literacy education currently valued in America has been ineffective in teaching more thoughtful literacy skills. A sociocognitive approach to literacy instruction focuses on developing the thinking skills that students will use as they engage in socially purposeful activities. Teachers, tests, and instructional materials in this approach emphasize not isolated bits of knowledge, but students' growing ability to use language and communication skills in more varied and reasoned ways. This approach to literacy instruction also maintains that (1) skills, structure, and routines are internalized en route to accomplishing purposeful and socially meaningful activities, and (2) the kinds of literate thinking that learners acquire is reflective of the social context in which literacy is learned. If schools are to teach higher levels of literate thinking, teachers must value and use these activities as part of the ongoing social-communicative fabric of the classroom. When this occurs, the nature of instructional activities will shift from practice to application. In addition, literacy education will change its focus from reading and writing to ways of thinking appropriate to the demands of present society. (Included are examples of instruction from a sociocognitive perspective, such as logs, letter writing, uses of language, writing a newspaper, and a prereading plan.) (JD)