The middle and high school years represent a unique challenge for students who have not yet attained proficiency with word reading. By this time, it is generally expected that students will be able to independently read a variety of texts to gain content knowledge and to read for understanding. Students with or at-risk for learning disabilities…

Although many students struggle to comprehend text, some populations of students are particularly impacted. Students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for example, perform lower on working memory measures, which can make reading comprehension even more difficult (Gropper & Tannock, 2009). Inattention, specifically, appears…

While mathematics and reading instruction share an emphasis on vocabulary, strategies may seem in conflict. Use the strategies presented here for connecting new learning to previous knowledge and experiences and providing meaningful paths for students' vocabulary development in the mathematics classroom.

In this manuscript we show how readalouds can significantly enrich student vocabulary and comprehension by demonstrating enhancements that will foster student learning and language development. We anchor our examples to empirical evidence demonstrating that the content of a readaloud (i.e., the what we teach) as well as the quality of the…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate the use of specific vocabulary instructional strategies during a six-week summer program to determine if the iReady universal screener measured an impact on student vocabulary and reading comprehension. The study utilized a treatment group (n = 34) and a control group (n = 40) from…

High frequency words, which are key to a text, must be mastered to achieve minimum levels of reading proficiency. However, knowledge about the frequency of items in a language is very limited. Given this consideration, WordSift (www.wordsift.org), a word cloud tool based on high frequency and key words can assist English as a Foreign Language…

The process of learning to read is more difficult for English language learners (ELLs) because they are often learning a new language as they are trying to learn to read. Learning irregular/high-frequency words (sight words) may be especially challenging for ELL students. Limited research exists on the effects of interventions designed to help ELL…

Given the current emphasis on how to teach reading, also known as the debate on the "Science of Reading," this text addresses the fundamentals of reading instruction and provides practical evidence-based research and strategies to support students who may be experiencing reading challenges. With a keen focus on how to apply knowledge of…

Background: In South African primary schools, reading is central to curriculum delivery, with a structured three-step process: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading. Many learners struggle with reading comprehension, which affects their academic performance. Research emphasises the importance of pre-reading for activating prior knowledge,…

Background: Despite evidence that synthetic phonics teaching has increased reading attainments, a sizable minority of children struggle to acquire phonics skills and teachers lack clear principles for deciding what types of "additional" support are most beneficial. Synthetic phonics teaches children to read using a decoding strategy to…

Help adolescents learn and use the academic words that will assist them in school and beyond. The author argues that "words worth using" must matter to adolescents' authentic work in the disciplines and connect to their lived experiences. Rather than using a model of vocabulary instruction that positions students as passive recipients…

Some children come to school with a smaller vocabulary than their peers. If children do not have knowledge of the meaning of the words they read in texts, they will fail to comprehend those texts and struggle to keep up with their peers. This is critical because the link between vocabulary and comprehension is very clear (Sticht et al., 1974, as…

More and more students with learning disabilities and other diverse learners are placed for instruction in general education classrooms, which often leaves teachers grappling to design successful peer interactions and literacy activities to meet the needs of all learners in their classrooms. As the shift is made to align literacy instruction to…

In this pre-registered meta-analysis, we investigated the effectiveness of morphology instruction on literacy outcomes for primary school children in English-speaking countries. We were interested in overall reading and spelling outcomes, but we also looked separately at results for trained and untrained words in order to determine whether there…

This dissertation investigates the potential of sustained use of academic vocabulary in reciprocal dialogue to improve educational equity for fifth-grade students with specific reading disabilities. Students with reading disabilities often struggle with acquiring academic vocabulary, which can hinder their overall academic performance and limit…