Contemporary educational initiatives require more non-fiction reading in English/language arts (ELA), close readings of primary and secondary sources in social studies/history (SSH), and text-based writing in all curricula. Teachers rely on various objective reading measures to determine a suitable challenge level for students. Primary sources, a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptualization of reading comprehension that extends beyond the traditional cognitive viewpoint on comprehension common in the field. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on literature and theory from various perspectives (cognitive, sociocultural and critical), the authors propose a conceptual…

This paper examines how student teachers and language learners might learn to question perspectives and develop critical literacy through critiquing of texts. Focusing on work in an in-service teacher education course, the discussion explores how to help English language learners to read text representations critically, in order to identify…

In the last few years, open textbook development has picked up dramatically due both to the expense of commercially published textbooks and the increasing availability of high-quality OER alternatives. While this offers a tremendous benefit in terms of lowering student textbook costs, the question remains, to what extent (if any) do open textbooks…

This special issue of "JREE" ["Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness"] features studies from three of the teams (Barnes, Stuebing, Fletcher, Barth, & Francis; Language and Reading Research Consortium, Arthur, & Davis; LaRusso et al.) supported by the Institute of Education Sciences--Reading for Understanding…

This study was conducted to identify the kinds and frequencies of comprehension strategies mathematics and psychology students employed while reading specialised and nonspecialised English texts. It also investigated whether the two groups differed in the amount and frequency of using the strategies. Ten graduate students (five majoring in…

The following article explores how one researcher blended verbal and visual literacies to disrupt conceptualizations of traditional qualitative research. Engaging visual modalities as a research tool, the author invites readers into an a/r/tographical multimodal post qualitative journey that deeply explores the power and value of visual research.…

The paper explores questions of power arising from feminist facilitators running a doctoral writing group at a UK university. Butler's [2014. Re-thinking Vulnerability and Resistance. [Online]. Accessed September 12, 2017.…

This article describes high school students' responses to events in the novel, "The Things They Carried," leading to their collaborative rewriting to create their own narrative versions of these events. It draws on "enactivist" theory of languaging, an approach to language that focuses on its use as social actions to enact and…

A well-versed writer on the limitations and possibilities of the English language, Seuss follows the conventional primers the wrong way, not by retracing the tradition of the genre, but by working his way against the current. Drawing upon Jean-Jacques Lecercle's notion of nonsense, this essay is a small attempt to examine three of Dr. Seuss's…

The combination of print materials and augmented reality in education is increasingly accessible due to advances in mobile technologies. Using familiar paper-based activities overlaid with digital items, also known as interactive print, educators can create a custom learning experience for students. There is very little guidance on the design of…

Reading comprehension deficits are common for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the rise in prevalence of this disorder has resulted in an increased demand for evidence-based strategies for teaching reading comprehension to this population. Research has found an increase in desired behaviors when a restricted interest (RI) or…

This paper looks at the positive and negative aspects of utilizing literature in an ESL class. The writers discuss that if any genre of literature is to be utilized effectively in the class, it should be precisely chosen and investigated precisely in a way which promotes a strong connection between the reader and the content. A particular example…

This article shares a literacy strategy to support students' analysis of the theme of text and provide evidence to support their assertion. The strategy is called Visual to Print Transfer (VPT). The VPT strategy leverages students' out-of-school literacy practices involving media images of Hollywood icons as a way to support their understanding of…

Schema is one of the most common terms used for classifying and constructing knowledge. Therefore, a schema is a pre-planned set of concepts. It usually contains social information and is used to represent chain of events, perceptions, situations, relationships and even objects. For example, Kant initially defines the idea of schema as some…