Reading is a vital skill for functioning in society. People need to read road signs, prescription labels, restaurant menus, and job applications just to make it through everyday life. Unfortunately, approximately 20% of the population (Washburn, & Joshi, & Binks-Cantrell, 2011) are said to be dyslexic which means they will struggle…

Over a 12-week period, the researchers implemented explicit and systematic reading instruction using grade-level fiction to evaluate the effects on the oral reading fluency and comprehension of seventh and eighth grade urban students at risk of academic failure. Ten students in the experimental group were provided systematic instruction consisting…

This case study examined the effectiveness of three fluency interventions (i.e., repeated reading, audio listening passage preview and teacher modeled listening passage preview) with a fifth grade student struggling with fluency skills. When compared to baseline, each intervention increased oral reading fluency by the end of the 7 weeks of…

Programs that promote family literacy, as defined by Hannon (2003), are "programs to teach literacy that acknowledge and make use of learners' family relationships and engagement in family literacy practices." Why are such programs important for young learners? According to Livingston and Wirt (2003), children who have homes with books,…

Balanced literacy has been proposed as a compromise or middle ground between philosophical approaches to reading instruction that stress teaching of word recognition and those that stress construction of meaning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the READ 180 balanced literacy supplementary instruction program on…

This study examines the value of a professional collaborative partnership between college faculty and middle school teachers in improving students' literacy skills and teachers' instructional practice. Three college faculty and two middle school teachers engaged in a collaborative effort to design and implement evidence-based strategies to promote…

As the ability to read proficiently is essential for success both in and out of the school setting, literacy has become an area of particular focus in today's classrooms. While recent assessments indicate that students are making progress in the area of reading (e.g., National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP], 2011), there continues to be…