Designed to help preservice and inservice teachers use assessments to identify problems and employ appropriate strategies to help their students become better readers, this text includes 12 case studies that detail children's literacy struggles. The cases are embedded within a framework of research-based instructional interventions related to best…

The Problem. In its meta-analysis on teaching children to read, U.S. National Reading Panel (NICHD & NIH, 2000) found repeated reading to be an effective technique for reading instruction. Specifically, the report determined that repeated reading procedures had a positive impact on word recognition, fluency, and comprehension across a range of…

The author reviews research on working memory and short-term memory abilities of deaf individuals, delineating strengths and weaknesses. Among the areas of weakness that are reviewed are sequential recall, processing speed, attention, and memory load. Areas of strengths include free recall, visuospatial recall, imagery, and dual encoding.…

Reading fluency is a critical yet commonly neglected component of early reading instruction. For the large percentage of English language learners (ELLs) who are struggling with or at risk for reading difficulties, there is insufficient research available to help educators implement time-efficient interventions with these students. Using an…

In an effort to improve student achievement, a group of middle-school teachers at an underperforming school developed a schoolwide literacy plan. As part of the plan, they agreed to model their thinking while reading aloud. Eight teachers were selected for coaching related to think alouds in which they exposed students to comprehension strategies…

This case study describes a year-long, tutorial intervention with a disfluent eighth-grade reader. Focused instruction, including guided reading at the appropriate instructional level (4th grade), repeated readings, and home tape-recorder readings, led the student to improve his reading rate by 33% (75 wpm to 100 wpm). Formative and summative…

In this 1-year longitudinal study, we examined the central component processes of reading fluency, spelling accuracy, reading comprehension, and narrative text writing skills of 103 Turkish Cypriot children. Two cohorts of children from 2nd and 4th grades were followed into 3rd and 5th grades, respectively. The testing battery included the…

Examining the body as a site and product of various ongoing discursive processes can provide insight about how identity impacts students' learning and understanding of their classroom experiences. This qualitative case study investigates how two, urban, eighth-grade students responded to being identified as struggling readers, concentrating…

The cognitive attributes of Grade 1 students who responded adequately and inadequately to a Tier 2 reading intervention were evaluated. The groups included inadequate responders based on decoding and fluency criteria (n = 29), only fluency criteria (n = 75), adequate responders (n = 85), and typically achieving students (n = 69). The cognitive…

Use of research-based practices for improving content area literacy of English learners is important both because of their growing numbers and their overall poor academic performance. However, how do we ensure that teachers are implementing proven methods with fidelity? This study shows the direct relationship between teachers' level of…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relation between word recognition errors made at a letter-sound pattern level on a word list and on a curriculum-based measurement oral reading fluency measure (CBM-ORF) for typical and struggling elementary readers. The participants were second, third, and fourth grade typical and struggling readers…

Five years of emergent literacy and literacy data from 2002 to 2007 were reviewed for first through third graders in a small, rural school in the Midwest. Forty first graders had received Reading Recovery services over that time span. Their scores on DIBELS were compared to 41 low average to average students. Subsequent placement in special…

This study examines the extent of developmental education participation among Oregon high school graduates students who attend community college and the relationship between high school experiences and subsequent developmental education course-taking. An analysis of state and national data from more than 101,000 Oregon public high school graduates…

Improving student performance for high-need student populations by improving the use of data in decision-making for early reading intervention programs in northwest Florida is the focus of this research to practice effort. The study is conceptually based on using a relational-feedback intervention (RFI) database model in early learning…

Closing the achievement gap in reading for struggling students is a goal that most urban schools are striving to achieve in this era of No Child Left Behind. Early intervention remains the best approach for successfully supporting those who struggle in the primary grades, but instruction must be targeted or matched to the assessed needs of the…