The purpose of this study was to improve the comprehension and problem-solving skills of students with disabilities in social studies using a conceptually framed, computer-adapted history text. Participants were 11th and 12th grade students identified with learning disabilities in reading and writing from two intact, self-contained social studies…

Theatre is a powerful tool for organizing one's experience. It is an instructional technique that motivates students as they seek to understand and communicate their learning. This article provides a foundation for using theatre as a learning strategy in the content areas for students with reading and learning disabilities, using metacognition as…

In 1997, the National Institute of Child Health Development, under the direction of Congress and the Secretary of Education, created the National Reading Panel to study scientifically based reading research. The Reading First initiative under President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act focused on five of the panel's research topics: phonemic…

In this article, the author presents anecdotal scenarios which reflect some important moments in the teaching and learning of reading. In the first scenario, a student recognized fluent reading and named it, illustrating the power of a common vocabulary. The second scenario addressed the importance of common visual supports in the school…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether memory support and elicited production differentially benefited fast mapping of new vocabulary (comprehension, production accuracy, and speed) in adolescents with Down syndrome (DS) compared with typically developing (TD) children matched for syntax comprehension. The study also examined…

This study examined the phonics and reading achievement of 117 primary grade students in 14 schools and 42 classrooms. Students received instruction in one of six different reading programs or models based upon the school they attended. Through qualitative data collection and analysis of specific instructional practices, it was determined that no…

Teachers must gauge students' understandings and confusions. Yet most research about teacher thinking neglects teachers' ideas about confusion and students' perspectives about their interactions with their teacher when they are confused. This study examines two high school English teachers' and six of their students' thinking about confusion,…

The present study focuses on the task characteristics of reading passages and key sentences in a test of second language reading. Using a new methodological approach to describe variation in test task characteristics and explore how differences in these characteristics might relate to examinee performance, it posed the two following research…

Web-based learning has been proposed as a convenient way to provide professional development experiences. Despite quantitative evidence that online instruction is equivalent to traditional methods (Russell, 2001), the efficiency of this approach has not been extensively studied among teachers. This case report describes learning in an online…

The purpose of this action research project report was to increase reading comprehension by using cooperative learning. Reading comprehension was a concern for the three teacher researchers at both research sites. There were 51 first and second grade students, 28 elementary teachers, and 51 families of the first and second grade students involved…

Waterford Early Reading Program[TM] is a software-based curriculum for students in Kindergarten through second grade. The curriculum is designed to promote reading, writing, and typing, incorporating literacy skills such as letter mastery, language stories, spelling, basic writing skills, reading and listening development, and comprehension…

A growing research base on adolescent literacy supports an emphasis on direct instruction in the reading and writing skills needed to perform these more complex literacy tasks. However, many middle and high school teachers have little or no preparation for teaching these skills within their content-area disciplines and have few resources upon…

Reflecting the diverse philosophies and experiences of clinicians and practitioners, this book presents 30 essays that address the identification of reading strengths and weaknesses, assessment, and instructional strategies for remediation. Chapters in the book are (1) "The Role of Vision in Reading Disability" (Lois B. Bing); (2) "Problems with…

Due to recent political changes in Latvia, it has been possible to conduct national comparative studies that may result in reforming the educational system. The first national survey in the field of education was the International Association of Educational Achievement (IEA) Reading Literacy Study. This study was done in Latvia as a parallel to…

In view of the dramatic increase in the use of television in the classroom, this study examines whether television captioning, technological enhancements to captioning like highlighting key concepts, and the presence or absence of other "advance organizers" in the classroom affect the comprehension and preferences of students with learning…