Students in the United States are struggling to show proficient comprehension in reading, with only 35% of the nation's fourth graders scoring proficient or higher on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2019. Since the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices &…

The purpose of the study was to investigate differences in writers' abilities to perceive global text organisation in self-, peer- and teacher/researcher-authored essays. Eight student participants were identified as proficient, middle or developing, based on the levels of paragraph subordination, the average number of T-Units and the number of…

Literature for children and youth has long played a pivotal role in growing students' literacy lives in schools. Fine literature, whether self-selected by students as choice reading or paired with teachers' thoughtful instruction, can launch students into personally meaningful and intellectually stimulating opportunities to read, respond,…

In first-year writing (FYW), instructors want students to understand how reading texts in particular ways affects how and what they learn and, in turn, how and what they might communicate to their own readers. Because students tend to come to FYW predisposed to notice more visual aspects (e.g., headings, bulleted lists) than verbal aspects (e.g.,…

Only 25% to 38% of secondary education graduates in the United States are proficient readers or writers but many continue to postsecondary education, where they take developmental education courses designed to help them improve their basic academic skills. However, outcomes are poor for this population, and one problem may be that approaches to…

This paper outlines a sequence of strategies that are designed to enable every child to experience pleasure in reading narrative literature, and to achieve success in writing, both their own stories and the responses to literature expected by the school curriculum. To enable these goals, literary texts are analysed at three scales: whole literary…

The rapid development of the digital classroom has made it possible to combine extensive reading with online writing, yet research and development in this area are lacking. This study explores the impact of online writing after extensive reading in a classroom setting in China where there was one computer for each student (a 1:1 digital…

As an important and a challenging source-based writing task, synthesizing offers rich opportunities to explore the connections between reading and writing. In this article, we report findings from a qualitative study of two Chinese students' learning experiences with academic synthesis writing in a university ESL composition course. Specifically,…

Describes the Guided Reading and Summarizing Procedure (GRASP), a classroom procedure for teaching students how to compose summaries of their reading. Describes the basic steps needed to implement the procedure: (1) preparing the students for the lesson; (2) reading for information; (3) organizing remembered information; and (4) writing the…

This book discusses semantic feature analysis, a strategy that helps teachers focus students' attention on vocabulary and increase their sensitivity to language. The first half of the book deals with the theoretical foundation, reviews the research, and describes the basic teaching strategy of semantic feature analysis. The book's second half is…

Describes using book diaries as a way for students to respond in writing to their reading as they practice the comprehension strategies learned in class; also describes using the diaries as an informal means of assessing students' learning and communicating regularly with parents. (MG)

Provides a list of 25 ideas that will enrich reading and writing programs. These ideas include reading aloud, reading demonstrations, reading conferences, independent and shared reading, miscue analysis, guided reading, theme immersion, independent writing, author/illustrator studies, personal journal writing, letter writing, and publishing. (MOK)

Increased attention on written response to literature has tended to eliminate other forms of student writing in literature classrooms. However, when we allow students to write fiction unrelated to a particular text, their commitment to and understanding of texts are enhanced. This can serve as a means of engaging students with reading. Eight…

Recommends several strategies to make reading novels in class more enjoyable and rewarding for students, so that they would not depend so much on "Cliff's Notes." (NKA)

Various authors provide a wide range of instructional suggestions, including hints for parents on how to read aloud to older children, a story web prewriting technique, a lesson on similes, a description of a series of books designed to develop literacy in natural ways, and advice on using the question-answer relationship procedure and basal…