This article describes a cross-age peer tutoring program in reading developed and implemented at a special school for students (ages 8-18) with moderate learning difficulties in Ireland. Evaluation studies indicate multiple benefits accruing to both the learners and the helpers including progress in reading, enhanced feelings of self-worth, and…

This dissertation examined the efficacy of using minimally trained college undergraduates to tutor third- through fifth-grade students with reading difficulties. Tutors receiving four hours of training in scripted reading program based on the principles of Direct Instruction and emphasizing explicit instruction in phonological awareness and…

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (a) to explore the nature of elementary school children's metacognitive knowledge of strategies appropriate for before, during, and after reading; and (b) to determine whether children who had participated in Reading Recovery instruction in the first grade had similar understandings as their current third-…

This study examines the characteristics and quality of simplification in graded readers as compared to those of "normal" authentic English. Two passages from graded readers are compared with the original passages. The comparison uses a computer programme, RANGE (Nation and Heatley, 2003) to analyse the distribution of high and low frequency words…

Over the past four years, educators and researchers from the University of Connecticut have worked with urban high-poverty schools to implement an alternative reading instruction program called the Schoolwide Enrichment Model in Reading (SEM-R). Based on Renzulli's Enrichment Triad Model, the SEM-R works through planned enrichment experiences to…

Ten university graduate students created electronic case studies describing the learning of struggling readers as a part of this study designed to yield insights about literacy education and the efficacy of electronic case study development. A variety of data, analyzed through a qualitative content analysis, revealed understandings regarding…

This grounded theory study explores how middle school literacy teachers used dialogue journals and the processes by which they responded to their students' written responses. Literary conversation between teacher and student was conceptualized as an ongoing scaffolding process within dialogue journals. Teachers used "response facilitators"…

Research in second language acquisition has shown that adjusting classroom discussions, textbook reading, and written activities to the language proficiencies of second language learners triggers second language acquisition in subject matter classrooms. Second language researchers find that subject matter teachers should systematically teach…

This article argues for adolescent literacy specialists to take a stand against current trends for improving adolescent literacy with simplistic solutions such as high-stakes assessments coupled with teacher bonuses for improved test scores. Professionals need to create their own visions about ways to improve adolescent literacy--and make their…

Background: We evaluate the effectiveness of three theoretically motivated programmes for the teaching of reading to four-year-old children. Method: Four hundred and ten children, of pre-kindergarten age, in 20 UK Reception-year classrooms were divided into four matched groups and randomly assigned to one of three experimental teaching conditions,…

This paper reports on a study of bilingual elementary students' oral reading miscue patterns focused on self-correction strategies. Specifically, two kinds of self-monitoring during reading were compared: self-correction for which previous context to the miscue provided no prompt to self-correct, and self-correction for which the miscue itself…

Students with physical impairments often have difficulties with reading and writing skills. As a result, they are behind when compared to their non-disabled peers. This requires teachers of students with orthopedic impairments to know the obstacles that effect reading and writing instruction for their students. They also need to be able to use…

The majority of youth in corrections have had negative school experiences and below average academic achievement. Longitudinal research indicates that both academic failure and a negative life-long trajectory are a probability for many youth confined to correctional facilities. Given the high number of youth from ethnic and cultural minority…

In this action research project, undertaken in a Grade 2/3 classroom, I posed the question: How can I encourage the readers in my class to become reflective and critical thinkers as they read? My aim was to support students in becoming reflective about what they read as well as about the strategies they used while reading, and to support the…

"We cannot allow the quality of special services to preclude conquering reading disabilities (Horne, 1978, p. 582)." This study was conducted to explore how teachers' spelling abilities relate to student outcomes. The results indicated that the students enrolled in classrooms where the teachers had the lowest knowledge of phoneme-grapheme…