Robert and Marlene McCracken, a husband and wife team, are credited with developing a literature-based teaching approach to build children’s literacy. They began teaching together in 1970 and formed the McCracken Educational Services, USA, Inc. in 1986 to help teachers develop curricula and strategies for helping students–especially at risk and ESL students–develop literacy. The McCracken approach is founded in the belief that as a result of being read to, most children can be taught to listen, think, speak, and write about what they have heard and that reading follows just as naturally as the tail follows the tiger.