Informational texts present complex content using language that is simultaneously technical, abstract, dense, and authoritative. This article describes practical strategies to support teachers in using informational picture books to prepare upper elementary school students for navigating the complex language demands necessitated by expository…

This article contributes to understanding the effectiveness of early grade reading interventions in low-income-country contexts and how and why such interventions vary in their effectiveness across schools. It presents the results from an impact evaluation of an early grade reading intervention in Haiti with a mixed-methods analysis of factors…

In some academic topics, like physics, students are required to comprehend tough books and acquire the knowledge contained in them. The majority of content-specific teachers typically feel awkward employing explicit tactics to boost student comprehension, despite the fact that they are adept at teaching the subjects covered in their areas. As a…

Designing rigorous studies to identify technology-based interventions to improve K-12 student reading skills require intervention researchers to take a "road less traveled." This chapter presents that road using the Knowledge Acquisition and Transformation Expansions (KATE) intervention as a case study. An early version of KATE has shown…

Numerous researches support the widely accepted notion that the reading experience between digital and printed literature differs. This study intends to investigate if this applies to reading comic books and to assess any differences in learning comprehension. The research methodology includes a systematic literature review to frame research…

While research has indicated that college students may benefit from collaboratively reading academic texts, little is known about how they co-construct comprehension through text-based discussions. This case study focused on two groups of undergraduate students with different degrees of participation in discussions -- one active group and one…

The current study was set to explore the influence of the first (L1) and second (L2) language group discussions on L2 reading comprehension. It also explored two sub-elements that were considered vital to L2 reading comprehension: (a) text genre recognition and (b) character and author's intention and perspective. Participants were 21 college…

Learning from multiple documents is an essential ability in today's society. This experimental study used concept network analysis to consider how reading prompts and post-reading generative learning tasks can alter students' documents integration performance. Undergraduates (N = 119) read three documents about Alzheimer's disease with one of two…

In sociolinguistic contexts where standardized languages coexist with regional dialects, the study of differential item functioning is a valuable tool for examining certain linguistic uses or varieties as threats to score validity. From an ecological perspective, this paper describes three stages in the study of differential item functioning…

This mixed-methods study explores the relationship between early elementary students' domain-specific vocabulary knowledge and their ability to comprehend grade-level reading passages on unfamiliar science topics. Specifically, this study used (a) structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the extent to which students' networks of…

Background: South Africa's PIRLS 2021 outcomes revealed that learners struggle with comprehension. The reasons for poor reading need to be identified and addressed to stem this challenge. Aim: This study assessed Sesotho Grade 4 learners' knowledge of simple and complex letter sounds, their oral reading fluency and the relationship to their oral…

Background: Young children clearly know quite a bit about the conventions of written language; for instance, 5-year-old children are sensitive to the fact that words tend to include both consonants and vowels, rather than just one or the other. The core theoretical debate lies in whether this understanding of sub-lexical orthographic regularities…

The purpose of this study was to examine clusters of less-skilled college readers. College students with below average reading comprehension skills (N = 77) read and thought aloud about four texts, recalled the texts, and completed standardized assessments of reading skills. Based on the findings of cluster analyses of the cognitive processes…

Having the ability to read is an essential skill for an individual. However, comprehension, the aim of reading, is a complex cognitive process that involves constructing meaning through deliberate thinking. Unfortunately, students with learning disabilities (LD) often struggle with reading, which impairs their comprehension abilities. Repeated…

When analyzing treatment effects on test scores, researchers face many choices and competing guidance for scoring tests and modeling results. This study examines the impact of scoring choices through simulation and an empirical application. Results show that estimates from multiple methods applied to the same data will vary because two-step models…