One reaction to the Common Core State Standards is a new emphasis on "close reading," an approach to teaching comprehension that requires students to extract meaning from text by examining how language is used in a passage. The intent is to strengthen their ability to learn from complex text independently and thus enhance college and…

At 2 primary schools in Western Jamaica, students at the Grade 1 level lacked basic literacy skills of comprehension, letter recognition, letter sounds, and oral communication. The purpose of this qualitative evaluation study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of the Jolly Phonics program implemented to improve students' literacy in Grades…

The best method for teaching children how to read has been debated for decades. The two major approaches have been the vocabulary controlled approach (phonics), and the literature based approach which uses children's literature to teach reading. There are proponents for both methodologies. The literature on the issue is as varied as the authors…

Examining largely unknown revisions of the New Criticisms reading pedagogy, the author argues that these revisions should serve as a model of how the Common Core ELA Standards might be revised to reconnect readers to the process of reading.

Theories guide many aspects of literacy research. In this article we describe four theoretical approaches that we have used in qualitative research with students who are perceived to struggle with reading in school, including: New Literacy Studies, Disability Studies in Education, Bioecological Systems Theory, and Cultural Historical Activity…

Teachers and supervisors of reading instruction need to stay abreast of trends and concerns when assisting pupils to achieve more optimally. Reading which meets high expectations is needed in school and in society. Thus, professionals involved in teaching reading in different academic and curriculum areas need to utilize the best methods of…

Service-learning can provide a range of literacy learning experiences for children as they work to solve real world problems and engage in inquiry, collaboration and reflection. Rather than being an extracurricular activity, service-learning projects are designed to meet standards and align with existing curriculum. This article explores how…

Research shows that many students entering postsecondary education are unprepared for college reading demands. This article highlights college reading readiness according to four essential reading skills. We illustrate these skills by featuring vignettes of high school seniors who are college-ready and not college-ready. Then we contextualize the…

We explore development of elementary preservice teachers' reflective practices as they solved problems encountered while teaching in a reading clinic. Written reflections (N = 175) were collected across 8 weeks from 23 preservice teachers and analyzed to investigate relationships among problem exploration, teaching adaptations, and problem…

Today, in conjunction with the Alliance for Childhood, we are thrilled to release our new report "Reading Instruction in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose." In the report we concluded that Common Core reading requirements for kindergarten are inappropriate and not well-grounded in research. Under Common Core, students are…

Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) is based on the premise that: (1) students can learn to use the reading strategies that more skillful readers use automatically; (2) students can engage in high-quality discussions about text with peers in heterogeneous student-led groups; and (3) structures and supports can act as a vehicle for equitable…

In this article, the authors describe how self-directed learning allows students to design their own research projects and rubrics, differentiated for their cognitive readiness, learning preferences, interests, and affect. The authors found that students viewed their self-directed learning as challenging but fun because it is relevant and doable,…

This qualitative study examined the scaling up of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model in Reading (SEM-R) in 11 elementary and middle schools in geographically diverse sites across the country. Comparative case study analysis was used, with 11 in-depth case studies summarizing findings from both SEM-R and comparison classrooms. Teachers in the 11…

The purpose of the current research is to identify the difficulties which teacher candidates studying elementary school teaching experienced in their past elementary reading and writing education and which cannot be forgotten, and to find out their solution for eliminating these difficulties. The study group of the research is composed of 118…

Multicultural literature can be found all across classrooms in the United States. I argue it is more important what you do with the literature than just having it in the classroom. Multicultural literature should be seen as a tool. In this article, I will share how I used multicultural literature as a tool to (a) promote or develop an appreciation…