The Ontario Human Rights Commission's (OHCR) "Right to Read Report" calls for school districts to implement early literacy interventions that have been scientifically proven to be effective for young children with reading difficulties. The acknowledgment of early intervention as an essential service for young children experiencing…

Across a carefully detailed argument, the shortcomings, inconsistencies and contradictions of the government's recent "Reading Framework" are made clear in the light of a substantial body of academic research on the nature of reading and the development of literacy. The dogmatic approach taken towards these issues by government and by…

We are very honored to have this great opportunity to interview Professor Paul Nation for the TEFLIN Journal's themed issue on Extensive Reading. Professor Paul Nation is an Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His special interests…

Leaders across North Carolina believe strongly in the potential for all students to read proficiently by 3rd grade. Yet despite significant effort and investment, only 36% of 4th graders are at or above proficient in reading. The Belk Foundation, in partnership with The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), The Foundation for…

The April 2015 issue of "Reading in a Foreign Language" featured a discussion forum on extensive reading (ER). Most of the authors, recognized authorities on ER, discussed their views of the principles of ER, particularly in establishing and conducting ER programs. The purpose of this discussion is to review developments in the practice…

We know more now than we ever did before about how to make every child a successful reader, write Allington and Gabriel in this research review. Yet, few students regularly receive the best reading instruction we know how to give. The authors present research supporting their recommendation that every child, every day, should (1) read something he…

In this article, I outline thoughts regarding the complexities and possibilities of the next generation of reading intervention for students who do not benefit from typical instructional practices. I ground my recommendations in school-based research and observations conducted primarily in kindergarten through third grade and more recently in…

When schools and teachers adopt core reading programs they can use them with fidelity or make intelligent decisions about the texts, lessons and components they select to use. The evidence suggests that these programs are not research-based documents, but rather compromises between what the research suggests about effective reading instruction and…

This article describes an urban middle school community that took part in a yearlong literacy engagement--a whole-school read of a young adult novel. The authors, three researchers from a nearby university, documented the yearlong event and the effect it had on the school's academic and social spaces. Relying on the perspective that literacy is…

This Research Connections column describes the background to and the research base for the San Diego Unified School Districts' federally funded Striving Readers Project. The curriculum for the project was developed out of a longitudinal study into the literacy experiences of secondary students in New Zealand and from exploratory work in San Diego…

This article reports on findings from a national study of Reading First's effect on student reading achievement released last week by the Institute of Education Sciences. The major federal report finds that the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program has had no measurable effect on students' reading comprehension, on average, although…

Reading Recovery, a popular one-to-one tutoring program that Bush administration officials sought to shut out of a high-profile federal reading program, has gotten a rare thumbs-up from the federal What Works Clearinghouse. The positive rating comes after prominent researchers and federal reading officials tried to dissuade states and districts…

For the past few years the authors have worked in urban public elementary schools to implement literacy instruction that emphasizes higher-level reading, writing, and thinking, while also maintaining instructional focus on the skills of decoding, word recognition, and fluency. Their efforts have involved implementing an initiative called In2Books.…

This study examines the growing trend of reading movements in Japan and their origins. There are three main movements: Animacion a la Lectura; Ten-Minutes Reading in the Morning; and Reading Aloud by Parents in schools. This paper reports on the three movements from a review of the literature, personal observations, and practice. The paper…

The founders of the family academy developed a powerful curriculum for struggling readers. The element of the powerful program that was born from research, from experience and from staying carefully attuned to young children is presented.