The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between oral reading fluency and performance on a statewide reading achievement test for middle grades students. Participants in this study were 75 seventh grade students. One month before the students were administered the state test, each student read three probes from their current…

We evaluated the effects of a summer reading intervention with a sample of low-income Black and Hispanic students who were struggling readers. In the summer before their 2nd- or 3rd-grade school year, 14 rising 2nd graders and 18 rising 3rd graders received 15 hr of a scripted, explicit phonics-based program in dyads from credentialed elementary…

Background: Educational processes and outcomes are influenced by a multitude of factors, including individual and contextual characteristics. Recently, studies have demonstrated that student and context characteristics may produce unique and cumulative effects on educational outcomes. Aims: The study aimed to investigate (1) the relative…

We explored the usefulness of first and second grade reading measures and responsiveness criteria collected within a response-to-intervention (RtI) framework for predicting reading disability (RD) in third grade. We used existing data from 387 linguistically diverse students who had participated in a longitudinal RtI study. Model-based predictors…

This study examined the effects of children's reading skills and interest in reading-related tasks on teacher perceptions of children's literacy skills (reading and spelling) and the respective individualized support for children during the first two years of formal schooling. The participants were 334 children and their classroom teachers.…

This article details one teacher's implementation of reading workshop in her second grade classroom. She provided a framework for authentic reading using the five components of reading workshop: time, choice, response, community, and structure. She found that reading workshop is a highly effective practice for not only increasing students'…

This exploratory study identified underlying skill and ability differences among subgroups of adolescent and young adult struggling readers (N = 290) overall and in relation to a fluency-based instructional grouping method. We used principal axis factoring of participants' scores on 18 measures of reading-related skills and abilities identified in…

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the effects of repeated reading on readers identified as below grade in sixth and seventh grade. The study was set in a rural middle school located in the foothills of North Carolina. Students selected for the study were identified utilizing Lexile levels to identify them as below grade level for…

Rapid Phonics is a synthetic phonics intervention intended to improve decoding skills and reading fluency. It teaches the relationship of word sounds to their corresponding letter groups in a structured way. In this evaluation, the intervention was delivered across the transition between primary and secondary school to Year 6/7 pupils who had not…

This randomized control study compares the efficacy of two response-to-intervention (RTI) models: (1) Dynamic RTI, which immediately refers grade 1 students with the weakest skills to the most intensive intervention supports (Tier 2 or Tier 3); and (2) Typical RTI, which starts all students in Tier 1 and after 8 weeks, decides whether students who…

In the past decade the proportion of school-aged children in the United States who are English language learners (ELLs) grew by 32%, compared with a 4.9% overall increase in U.S. school enrollment. This only heightens the already important challenge of providing effective, appropriate reading instruction for ELLs because all teachers can expect to…

Much has been written about the importance of extensive reading for the development of language fluency, yet it is not often an activity of choice by students as a means of improving language learning. Many of my multi-level (elementary-intermediate) Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) Certificates in Spoken and Written English (CSWE) students…

Reading instruction often does not focus on appealing to student interests, offering choice, or responding to the needs of advanced readers. In this experimental study, we examined the effects on achievement of an instructional approach involving choice, differentiated instruction, and extensive, supported, independent reading, with corresponding…

This case study explored how children's moral expressions like love and violence differ according to the mode of narrative, comic strips or written narratives. Sixteen third-grade children from a primary school in Finland took part in the study. Children's moral expressions were divided into justice and care. Reading frequency of fairy tales and…

The knowledge and practices associated with improved outcomes for readers have yielded converging evidence about practices associated with improved reading outcomes for primary students. This considerable intervention knowledge can be beneficial for English teachers working with struggling secondary readers. Fluency is one critical element that…