Elementary school multicultural reading curricula include characters with diverse proper names, which are often unfamiliar and differ phonetically from students' native language. These names could impact reading outcomes by increasing students' cognitive load and/or creating cognitive disfluency. In Study 1, students in grades 1 through 2 read a…

The educational system has an increasing population of students with diverse learning needs that must be addressed to ensure all students are academically successful. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether differentiated instruction had a positive effect on the vocabulary and the reading comprehension of struggling 2nd grade…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to respond to A. G. Kamhi's (2007) challenge to consider two points of view on reading--the broad and the narrow. Each point of view includes a component of the reading process; namely, comprehension and word recognition. Taken separately, each point of view is insufficient for our understanding of the…

Talk is the foundation for thought and understanding and the key to literacy learning. Research demonstrates that powerful metacognitive strategies can be taught to help students self-monitor their comprehension when reading print and digital texts. This article provides a repertoire of speaking and listening strategies to develop the…

Reading difficulties and disabilities present serious and potentially lifelong challenges. Children who do not read well are more likely to be retained a grade in school, drop out of high school, become a teen parent, or enter the juvenile justice system. Building on the extant research and seminal studies, including the National Reading Panel and…

The literature of reading theory and research suggests a number of key factors involved in the comprehension process. In simplest terms, comprehension is the process by which an individual actively generates meaning from some linguistic input. Five factors of reading comprehension have been identified through research: vocabulary knowledge, the…

This booklet contains over 35 sample student activities designed by teachers to support the development of prerequisite skills for reading comprehension and to offer opportunities for mastery learning. Activities are suggested in the areas of letter/sound relationships, word recognition, experiential concept development, cognitive concept…

Argues that metacognitive development should remain--or become--an aspect of instruction that aims to enhance students' reading comprehension. (HOD)

Argues that bibliotherapy can be used to help children develop reading comprehension skill and to use that skill to understand their own personal and social development in a better way. Provides a list of books suitable for bibliotherapy. (FL)

Discusses the principles of art and provides activities that correlate art and reading and promote cognitive and affective development. (HTH)

Presents a language arts unit designed to create bridges between the real world and the story in order to help children develop both social understanding and reading comprehension skills. (FL)

Vygotsky (1978) presented ideas influential to the "constructivist" approach to education. This approach included the "zone of proximal development," and defined what is essential for student's development of a higher cognitive ability in order to become self-motivated learners. His theory also directly relates to the research regarding the…

The second of eight related documents, this booklet is part of a series of papers presented at the 1978 National Right to Read Conference examining issues and problems in literacy. In its examination of the place of reading in the preschool curriculum, the booklet first explores different definitions of reading and develops a concept of the…

Noting that the reading process is interactive, describes the use of guided imagery as a strategy to help children monitor their own comprehension. Presents support from research. (NH)

Examines the prevailing theories of reading comprehension: the psycholinguistic model, schema theory, and the skills model. Discusses their implications for instruction. (FL)