During the 2012-2013 school year, Metropolitan Montessori School, on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a school for 3-to-12-year-olds, adopted a reading workshop approach. This decision resulted from several recognized needs. One need was to provide teachers with a strong, clear framework for literacy instruction, particularly at the emergent reading…

For many teachers of middle school and high school, the greatest challenge they face in trying to help struggling readers improve their skills can be students' self-perception. When young people do not see themselves as members of the "literacy club," it is not just a simple matter of persuading them that becoming a fluent reader is…

In this article, the author explores the implementation of the K-3 Reading First initiative and its recommendation for scientifically based reading curricula. During a time of high-stakes testing and accountability, this policy has emphasized a skills-based approach to reading and placed importance on scripted teaching models. Using data from a…

Every step in a student's life is important for future success. Schools are building stronger frameworks of curricula, instruction and assessments to prepare students to move from one learning environment to another with maximum results as they journey toward adulthood. This issue of "High Schools That Work" contains examples of…

Many schools mandate that teachers use scripted lessons and specific reading programs. To minimize the many problems that such instructional inflexibility can create for struggling readers, this article describes five principles of motivation and shows how teachers can apply these principles with struggling readers within the framework of mandated…

In this tale of a single event told from the perspectives of multiple narrators, Erick Gordon, Kerry McKibbin, Lalitha Vasudevan, and Ruth Vinz write about their work together on a Student Press Initiative (SPI) writing project at Horizon Academy, the Department of Correction/Department of Education high school at Rikers Island Jail in New York…

This article reports that educators and experts across the country who work with English-language learners (ELLs) are moving toward a consensus that the federal Reading First program needs to be refined to become more effective for children acquiring English. Administrators in several big-city districts with large numbers of such students are…

INCLUDED ARE CASE DESCRIPTIONS OF TWO RETARDED READERS WHOSE ORAL READING SCORES WERE TWO GRADE LEVELS ABOVE PLACEMENT, A DESCRIPTION OF CLASSROOM TEACHNIQUE THAT TEACHES WITH A 25 TO 1 PUPIL-TEACHER RATIO, AND A DISCUSSION OF THE PSYCHOSOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION TO MEET INDIVIDUAL NEEDS. CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES SHOULD BE…

This report describes the organizational structure, a literacy approach called the 6Rs, and theme-related components that occurred over three summers at CampUs. Thousands of inner-city children from housing development sites located in New York City's five boroughs were bused to a metropolitan university. During 10-day cycles, children read trade…