The present study presents an instructional procedure developed in an attempt to enhance incidental learning through graded readers in class, the Multiple Incidental Exposures (MIE) procedure, and compares it to a more common procedure involving reading and doing the exercises, which is referred to as Traditional Explicit Practice (TEP).…

Word semantic knowledge (WSK) is crucial to the development of one's reading comprehension ability. A total of 608 students (208 poor readers in the experimental group and 200 poor readers in the control group one, and 200 typical readers in control group 2) from grade 4 participated in this study. Selected reading ability assessments were…

Although metaphors are essential tools in everyday communication and educational settings, the literature lacks evidence of effective training tools to promote metaphor comprehension in typical development. Grounding in theoretical pragmatics, we developed a novel metaphor comprehension training (MetaCom) for school-age children that focuses on…

High-quality measures of instructional practice are essential for research and evaluation of innovative instructional policies and programs. However, existing measures have generally proven inadequate because of cost and validity issues. This paper addresses two potential drawbacks of survey self-report measures: variation in teachers'…

Facilitating productive discussions in the mathematics classroom is a challenge for many teachers. Discourse--student communication of mathematical ideas with teachers and peers--provides a platform on which students share their understanding, clarify misperceptions, and evaluate ideas. If students are unable to access and participate in…

Important strides have been made in the science of learning to read. Yet, many students still struggle to attain reading proficiency. This calls for sustained efforts to bridge theoretical insights with applied considerations about ideal pedagogy. The current study was designed to contribute to this conversation, namely by looking at the efficacy…

A quasi-experimental study examined effects of a 10-week word structure intervention with fourth-grade students. During daily 10-15-minute practice periods, students worked individually with mobile apps focused on specific aspects of word identification. Pre- and post-treatment assessments showed no differences in rate and accuracy of oral reading…

The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) was grappling with several issues including: (1) A respectable rate of growth in student achievement for both fourth- and eighth-grade math in the state of Alabama, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), but below the national average; and (2) A growing concern about…

Teachers need more clarity about effective teaching practices as they strive to help their low-achieving students understand mathematics. Our study describes the instructional practices used by two teachers who, by value-added metrics, would be considered "highly effective teachers" in classrooms with a majority of students who were…

The primary aim of this study was to explore the relationship between teachers' instruction and students' vocabulary and comprehension in grades 3-5. The secondary aim of this study was to investigate whether this relationship differed for English monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual students. To meet these aims, we observed and…

Language is critical in the mediation of scientific reasoning, higher-order thinking and the development of scientific literacy. This study investigated how an exemplary primary science teacher scaffolds and supports students' reasoning during a Year 4 materials unit. Lessons captured on video, teacher and student interviews and micro-ethnographic…

What constitutes a successful lesson? A considerable body of literature examines instructional talk; however, little attention has been directed to situations in which teacher intentions (as captured by lesson plan) are stymied by unanticipated student response and the teacher must instantaneously reevaluate and revise an intended lesson. This…

For their 61st annual conference, the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) met in St. Petersburg, Florida. This year's conference theme was "Engaging All Readers through Explorations of Literacy, Language, and Culture," which was also used as the title for this year's "Yearbook." This "Yearbook"…

The purpose of this study was to examine the difference between students' scores in comprehension (English Language Arts) tests when they are led in Brain Gym® activities before class instruction and when they are taught using traditional teaching strategies. The sample for this study consisted of 11 males and 9 females. Data were collected by…

Reciprocal peer tutoring can be an effective supplement to teacher-led instruction, but students need to have the tutoring skills necessary to teach their peers successfully. Previous studies have addressed the challenge of providing essential information to a naive tutor, allowing for correct modeling and feedback. The present study compared…