Curriculum Associates' "i-Ready® Personalized Instruction" ("i-Ready") is a supplemental, online personalized instruction program available for reading and mathematics. Prior research has indicated "i-Ready" has a positive impact on K-8 student achievement for students overall (e.g., Swain, Randel, & Norman…

Now in its sixth edition, "Striking a Balance" clearly illustrates how to create a comprehensive early literacy program that places direct skills instruction within the context of rich and varied reading and writing experiences. Text discussions, dynamic activities, and valuable appendices provide a variety of effective instructional…

Finding an effective instruction mode for ESL students in the US educational system has not been an easy task. The country's secondary and tertiary institutions continue to struggle to meet the needs of their large non-native student populations. The article revisits the debate whether sheltered instruction is an effective model to follow. In our…

Research is failing to consistently report theoretical frameworks, increasing the gap between research and practice, and increasing the difficulty teachers face in effectively matching interventions with student needs. However, this lack of theoretical understanding has not been well documented in the current literature. The purpose of this…

Background: "Synthetic phonics" is the widely accepted approach for teaching reading in English: Children are taught to sound out the letters in a word then blend these sounds together. Aims: We compared the impact of two "synthetic phonics" programmes on early reading. Sample: Children received "Letters" and…

This study examines the efficacy of three teaching methods, namely, passive supported image pedagogy, active supported image pedagogy, and traditional instruction, in increasing the reading motivation and comprehension of students. 116 fourth-grade students participated in the study and were evenly assigned, according to their pre-test…

The Common Core raises the stature of texts to new heights, creating a hubbub. The fuss is especially messy at the early grades, where children are expected to read more complex texts than in the past. But early-grades teachers have been given little actionable guidance about text complexity. The authors recently examined early-grades texts to…

Critical thinking has drawn great concern from researchers in America and western world since 1980s. Chinese researchers have come to realize the fundamental function of critical thinking for innovation. However, it does not take effect to cultivate students' critical thinking in English classroom. English classroom activities are generally…

Reading proficiency has been identified as one of the most reliable indicators of whether a learner will attain the competence needed to achieve academic success and contribute actively to society. Research findings in Kenyan primary and secondary schools reveal inadequate reading skills among the students. There are different approaches in…

Successful anaphor comprehension in reading is related to the explicitness of the antecedent--anaphor relation. It mirrors one of the purposes of textual enhancement (TE), which is that it raises learners' awareness of linguistic forms by enhancing the salience of input. Therefore, learners notice the enhanced form and discover the rule or…

It has been both informative and interesting for the author to look back 20 years and recall what was happening in the field of reading. The author related these memories to her introduction and first use of "What's Hot, What's Not" (Cassidy & Wenrich, 1997). As it was, she was preparing her Keynote Address for the College Reading…

This study focuses on preservice teachers' metacognitive reading strategies, in particular their awareness of such strategies as a reader and future teacher in three different stages (initial, middle, and final stages) of the teacher education program. The study had two research questions: (1) Are there any significant differences between…

The purpose of this research study was to compare the impact of Teacher-Set Accelerated Reader goals (TSAR) with Student-Set Accelerated Reader goals (SSAR) of fourth- and fifth-grade students. The goal of this research study was to determine which type of goal setting approach influences reading growth the most as measured by the easyCBM…

Within a Southwestern school system, deficits in early literacy skills exist as is illustrated by kindergarten students not meeting the requirements on the Phonological Awareness and Phonics Inventory (PAPI). To address this deficit in early literacy skills, the school system instituted the use of the Guided Reading Approach (GR); however, it was…

The problem investigated in this quantitative study was that schools in a small, rural East Texas town were falling below acceptable ratings in reading on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) and the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR). Researchers have found that constructive-based learning environments (CBLEs)…