Motivating students to learn and engaging them in the learning process is a constant struggle among teachers. The lack of motivation and engagement in reading lessons is one-reason elementary students are struggling to reach proficiency in reading. This systematic review used current literature to investigate the best practices seen in elementary…

Too often, students reach college without the learning, critical thinking, and literacy skills they need to succeed in higher education. Recent educational trends that promote teaching to the test, short reading and writing assignments, group work, and technological resources contribute to students' difficulties transitioning to college-level…

In this empirical study we examined the effect of a literacy-infused science intervention on fifth grade economically challenged students' science achievement in the curriculum-based and standardized assessments. A total of 27 treatment students and 20 comparison students from two intermediate schools in a rural district in South Texas in the…

The present empirical study scrutinizes the use of short stories via computer technologies in teaching and learning English language. The objective of the study is two-fold: to examine how short stories could be used through computer programs in teaching and learning English and to collect data about students' perceptions of this technique via…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of virtual literature circles (VLCs) on Chinese university English as a foreign language (EFL) students' independent English reading. The importance of independent reading for EFL students to develop critical thinking, language proficiency, and good readership was extensively discussed and…

The goals for engaging students in peer learning range from positioning students as knowledgeable others to promoting social-emotional learning goals to providing contexts in which students can articulate and compare their thinking to supporting opportunities to cogenerate solutions to complex problems. There are a number of complexities…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using a content acquisition podcast (CAP) to teach phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics (PA) to preservice special education teachers. Fifty undergraduate preservice special education teachers over 2 years were randomly assigned to either the CAP group or a comparison group…

This qualitative study focused on at-risk college freshmen's ability to read and write expository text using game-like, online expository writing activities. These activities required participants to write descriptions of a target object so that peers could guess what the object was, after which they were given the results of those guesses as…

Explores the development of a literature-based writing unit with computers for at-risk students through the creation of a Literacy Club. Suggests that current technology can provide the incentive required before at-risk students become willing participants in literary experiences. Literary Clubs can provide a rich context for learning to write…

The 2007 meeting of the English Think Tank published here represents a sample of the English Think Tank V presentations. In reading these papers one is struck by the imagination and expertise possessed by so many members in the field. The paper topics fall roughly into four categories--assessment, diversity, literacy, and technology. This…