Teachers understand the importance of think-alouds, yet research shows that think-alouds may be used ineffectively in practice. Often, this results from the difficulty of explicitly sharing the inner thought processes of competent readers and writers in transferable ways for students. To our knowledge, a tool for helping preservice teachers…

Reading comprehension is the goal of reading, and making inferences is vital. Authors usually expect readers to make multiple types of inferences, including anaphoric, background knowledge, predictive, and retrospective. Common core assessments include all of these, yet instructional materials focus mostly on only one type, retrospective. This…

The authors report on a think-aloud study of college students placed into developmental reading courses as they learned and implemented a new strategy device. The purpose was to investigate the device's potential utility for students, especially given the current practical trends in the field to move away from strategy instruction. Findings…

This article addresses well-known and difficult problems involving reading comprehension and compliance in college courses, using a lower-level philosophy course as a case study. It draws upon both general and discipline-specific research in three promising areas for reading instruction: metacognition, modeling via "think-alouds," and…

The primary goal of this study was to explore the changes that four Korean university students made in their regulation of cognition during reading processes. The students were trained using explicit reading strategy instruction based on the CALLA model. To this end, first, metacognition was framed and categorized by the definition from Baker and…

Based on experiences teaching a middle grades literacy course for pre-service teachers, this "Voices from the Field" article examines how challenging texts provoke adult learners to more closely attend to their reading experiences. By engaging with difficult texts, pre-service teachers experience frustration and confusion while reading.…

David Narter has taught English and AP Language and Composition at Leyden High School for 19 years. As a high school English teacher, it breaks his heart to see a gradual shedding of pleasure reading and its academic benefits. Yet, it is a trend he says he has grown familiar with among his best students, who, as they grow older, are taught that…

Despite its unquestionable interest from a theoretical and practical point of view, so far there has been little research on online reading and there is a lack of attention paid to this topic in most European educational institutions. In particular, primary and secondary school teachers are not adequately trained on how and when to intervene to…

For successful reading experiences in native and/or foreign/second language, individuals need to benefit from not only cognitive strategies but also metacognitive strategies. Although research found reading comprehension and performance increase following metacognitive trainings, such findings may not transfer into mainstream classrooms as easily…

The purpose of this intervention study was to test the use of a reading comprehension strategy with students who are deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH) in monitoring and resolving problems with comprehension. The strategy, named Comprehension Check and Repair (CC&R), was designed for D/HH students who struggle with comprehension, despite at least…

At one high school, the goal for nonproficient reading students was to score at or above the 50th percentile to meet adequate yearly progress objectives. In 2010, the performance levels of nonproficient reading students tested with the state reading test in Grades 9 and 10 declined from the 47th to the 46th percentile. The purpose of this research…

This study describes six first-grade students' use of metacognitive strategies. The students (4 boys and 2 girls) represented low, average, and above-average readers and were enrolled in a rural Midwestern elementary school. A variety of data were collected throughout the year: (a) an informal reading inventory and metacognitive awareness…

This case study explores the impact of metacognitive reading strategies on the ability of five college students in developmental courses to self-regulate while reading. Instruction in reading strategies derived from past research on metacognition was scaffolded, based on Pearson and Gallagher's (1983) model of gradual release of responsibility.…

Despite decades of efforts, alarming statistics about the literacy crisis from secondary school teachers indicate that the reading abilities of the learners are inadequate for the materials to be taught and teachers wonder if adolescents are literate enough, language-wise, to leave school and enter colleges or universities. The common mode of…

This article considers the role of reader characteristics in processing and learning from informational text, as revealed in think-aloud research. A theoretical framework for relevant aspects of readers' processing and products was developed. These relevant aspects included three attentional foci for processing (comprehension, monitoring, and…