This study focused on accelerating development of science knowledge and understanding at the primary level (grades 1-2) as a means for enhancing reading comprehension (i.e. early literacy). An adaptation of a grade 3-5 cognitive-science-based, instructional model ("Science IDEAS") that integrated science with reading and writing, this…

Reflecting on his successful scientific career, Isaac Newton highlighted his intellectual debt to his predecessors. "If I have seen further," he wrote, "it was "only" by standing on the shoulders of giants." The authors have chosen the title of their article as a token of recognition of their debt to the teachings of…

New literacies in reading research demand the study of comprehension skills using multiple modalities through a more complex, multi-platform view of reading. Taking into account the robust roll of technology in our daily lives, this article presents an update to the traditional literature circle lesson to include digital storytelling and…

The present study investigated the role of vocabulary depth in reading comprehension among a diverse sample of monolingual and bilingual children in grades 2-4. Vocabulary depth was defined as including morphological awareness, awareness of semantic relations, and syntactic awareness. Two hundred ninety-four children from 3 schools in a…

The purpose of this study was to examine how 28 kindergartners in two half-day classrooms from a rural midwestern school monitored and self-regulated their understanding of texts (fiction and nonfiction) while reading. Three different interviews (fall, early spring, and late spring) were conducted while the children read from one of two…

A word-length effect is often described in pure alexia, with reading time proportional to the number of letters in a word. Given the frequent association of right hemianopia with pure alexia, it is uncertain whether and how much of the word-length effect may be attributable to the hemifield loss. To isolate the contribution of the visual field…

Although a considerable amount of evidence has been amassed regarding the contributions of lower-level word processes, higher-level processes, and working memory to reading comprehension, little is known about the relationships among these sources of individual differences or their relative contributions to reading comprehension performance. This…

Prereading questions can be an effective tool for directing students' learning. However, it is not always clear what the online effects of a set of prereading questions will be. In two experiments, this study investigated whether readers direct additional attention to and learn more from sentences that are potentially relevant to a set of…

Several government agencies are seeking quality improvement in environmental policy documents by asking for the implementation of Plain Language (PL) guidelines. Our mixed-methods research examines whether the application of certain PL guidelines affects the comprehension and perceptions of readers of environmental policy documents. Results show…

The present study aimed at identifying core components of reading instruction in Chinese within the framework of the tiered intervention model. A curriculum with four teaching components of cognitive-linguistic skills was implemented in a Program school for 3 years since Grade 1. The findings showed that the Tier 1 intervention was effective in…

This study describes the sense-making behaviors of sixth- and seventh-grade students (n = 46 dyads) as they read and discussed expository articles in print and digital formats. Most dyads approached the digital text as if it were static and linear, despite the availability of hyperlinks. Reading through (or covering) the text was the most commonly…

Differences in literacy growth over the summer versus the school year were examined to isolate how schooling affects children's literacy development from preschool through second grade across four literacy skills. Children (n = 383) were tested individually twice each year for up to 4 years on measures of phonological awareness, decoding, reading…

This study investigated the syntactic ability of 82 struggling adult readers who recognize words between the third and fifth grade levels. Analysis of the adults' performance on the TOLD-I:3 indicated that they were deficient on the syntactic task. Correlations found the struggling adult readers' oral language skills, written language skills, and…

Numerous research studies prove that wide reading improves children's comprehension, background knowledge, vocabulary, fluency, and writing. The author, a sixth-grade language arts teacher, describes the classroom conditions and instructional practices that encourage wide reading and increase her students' reading motivation such as choice in…

The Common Core State Standards emphasize the value of teaching students to engage with complex text. But what exactly makes a text complex, and how can teachers help students develop their ability to learn from such texts? The authors of this article discuss five factors that determine text complexity: vocabulary, sentence structure, coherence,…