Slow reading has long been viewed as a teaching technique that engages students more deeply with course readings. Little systematic research, however, has been done to understand how this pedagogical strategy works in college classrooms. This study investigated how slow reading techniques promoted deep learning among undergraduate college students…

Recent scholarship in multiliteracies-oriented pedagogies has advocated for greater attention to fostering 'textual thinking', understood as forms of literacy that consider the complexities of semiotic choices made by authors, and their underlying meanings, rhetorical purposes, and cultural contexts. This kind of engagement with texts calls upon…

In this article, Anders Öhman discusses Gert J. J. Biesta's concept of the risk of education and what it could mean for the study of literature in the classroom. The article's point of departure is Bakhtin's theory of the utterance. The utterance, for Bakhtin, has to be embodied, that is, it has to be governed by a purpose: it must be uttered by…

12 teachers were interviewed and observed as they engaged students in close reading. We analyzed their responses and instruction to determine the scaffolds that were used as well as the contingency teaching plans they implemented when students were unable to understand the text.

Implementation of Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts across most of the United States has yielded the rapid creation of new, interconnected literacy assessments, curriculum guidelines, instructional materials, teacher preparation programs, teacher evaluation systems, and professional development. This essay explores two…

Textbooks have the potential to be powerful tools to help students develop an understanding of mathematics. However, many students are unable to use their textbooks effectively as learning tools. This paper presents a framework that can be used to analyze factors that impact the ways students read textbooks. It adapts ideas from reader-oriented…

Preparing teachers to understand their students' reading processes so that they can guide their students toward connecting with texts in meaningful and personal ways are goals that can be met through the study of young adult literature. Twenty-first century learners live in an increasingly interconnected world and have access to countless texts…

This paper gives a short analysis of the nature of reading. Though it is generally believed that reading involves perceiving the written form of language, the term reading has not been clearly defined up to date. It is possible to see reading as a process, or to examine the product of that process. Three reading models, namely Bottom-up Model,…

This research investigated factors that influence the implementation levels of evidence-based comprehension strategy instruction (CSI) among K-3 teachers. An explanatory design was chosen to gather and probe the data. Quantitative data were gathered via a mailed survey distributed through a representative sample of the 40 school districts (through…

This dissertation project examines the implementation of a critical reading intervention in a Mexican university, and the emergence of target critical reading processes in Mexican college-level EFL readers. It uses a Complexity Theory-inspired, qualitative methodology. Orienting the selection and design of materials is a deep view of culture that…

This article examines how a second-grader demonstrates that reading is not about decoding letters and words in linear order but is a more complex activity involving the reader's decisions with respect to several aspects of their knowledge of their language and how comprehension is key to transacting with texts. The paper observes and documents the…

The reading workshop approach has been found to successfully improve students' reading comprehension and attitudes toward reading. "Reading workshop" is a term that initially referred to reading sessions that encouraged and supported the independent reading of literature, and it traditionally included reading minilessons, independent silent…

Integrating comprehension and vocabulary instruction in read-alouds can help teachers make the very most of class time. The curriculum described illustrates how read-alouds, when implemented with strategic purpose, can boost learners' vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Specifically, the author presents guidelines for: (1) selecting…

Assuming that readers' emotional responses can enhance readers' metacognitive experiences and inform literary analysis, this study of 11th-grade poetry readers features instruction that models both cognitive and affective reading processes. The author: (1) Presents a case for more explicit attention to emotion in language arts classrooms; (2)…

Discusses potential dangers in the current move toward literature-based instruction across the curriculum. Calls for educators to help students understand that there are different stances one can take in reading a text and not to mislead them by treating literary works as if they were intended to be read "efferently." (MG)