The purpose of this study was to determine current kindergarten teacher understandings of early phonics instruction and how teachers are meeting readers' early phonics needs during guided reading instruction. Using Vygotsky's (1979) social constructivist theory and Ehri's (1995) connectionist theory and by focusing on age-appropriate instruction,…

Early literacy skills are essential to later reading success, yet minimal empirical understanding exists about preparing students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to read. Since 1 in 59 children are currently diagnosed with ASD, understanding how to teach reading to this population in critical. Decoding is necessary for successful reading, per…

Many students with Down syndrome now receive reading instruction in either inclusion-focused or skill-based instructional settings. There are, however, varied results in the level of reading skills that students with Down syndrome attain. The focus of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference in the reading skill…

Basals have played an important role in classroom instruction for almost 200 years. Historically, basal programs have been influenced by both important research and policy reports. This study analyzed one publishing company's basal program across seven editions in order to trace the interaction of research, policy, and publication. Teacher's…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the perceptions that male at-risk sixth, seventh and eighth grade students' possess toward reading at a small rural public school district in Michigan. Male at-risk students was generally defined as students below grade level in reading based on their STAR reading assessment. Male…