A central focus in the study of metacognition is that readers need to recognize what they know about a topic, they need to realize when they have read something they do not understand, and they need to know how to remediate any discrepancies in their understanding. This paper is presented in three sections. The first section discusses what is…

This book, which focuses on the language arts teacher/researcher, is offered as a testament to teachers' expanding participation in collecting data and building theories about teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment. The book's 24 chapters are grouped into four parts. The first part addresses general issues about teacher research: its…

A discussion of the use of sustained silent reading (SSR) to improve the reading skills and enjoyment of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students reviews studies on the effects of SSR in both first- and second-language contexts and offers suggestions for its classroom use. Some of the research looks at the effect of the technique on attitudes…

This book focuses on a range of instructional practices that promote children's understanding and build meaning into their academic learning experience. Actual practices uncovered in a 2-year investigation of 140 classrooms in a variety of high-poverty school settings are described and analyzed in a comprehensive demonstration of what…

By describing what has been learned in disseminating Success for All, a reform program for high-poverty elementary schools, this paper explores how a national approach to professional development might enable professional development networks to implement proven school change models. Success for All restructures the elementary school by…

This newsletter focuses on schoolwide approaches to issues of major concern to educators, from the perspective of providing equal education for all children. "Supporting School Improvement in Reading through Professional Development" (Rogelio Lopez del Bosque, Abelardo Villarreal) describes a professional development program that…

A study investigated the effectiveness of integrating computer technology (multimedia learning resources in a "virtual" classroom) with content area and reading and writing curriculum. All students in grades 2 through 5 at Sun Valley Elementary School, Canada, had their reading and writing assessed. In addition, the writing performance…

Case study as a research methodology was used to provide a dense description and examination of many of the complex factors in the experiences of three selected student teachers and their cooperating teachers. This research effort examined the real or perceived effects of cooperating teachers' supervision on student teachers' attitudes,…

To gather data on the level of students' reading skills, California's Golden West College conducted two studies. A longitudinal study examined results for the college's reading assessment test from 1991 to 1995, as well as the role that reading skills played in the success of students who took the assessment test and who were subsequently enrolled…

A study examined whether Kentucky primary teachers were adopting the changes in literacy instruction recommended in the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA/1990) which, in part, encouraged the use of whole language and integrated reading/language arts approaches and the teaching of writing as a process. The study employed direct classroom…

A study examined a program for implementing a reader's workshop to improve low reading skills. Subjects were first-, second-, and third-grade students in a suburb of a large midwestern city. The problem of low reading skills was observed and documented in grade 1 through a sight word assessment and a 3-part writing assessment which included a…

A study examined an early reading intervention program designed to lead children, identified with low reading readiness at the start of first grade, to an appropriate reading level by the end of a 6-month period. Subjects were students entering first grade in a middle class community in northern Illinois. The problems of low reading readiness were…

There has been a significant increase in the numbers of underprepared students entering colleges and universities. At Schoolcraft College, in Michigan, data consistently indicate that large percentages of students score below college level in reading, writing, and mathematics skills. Classroom techniques that can help faculty better meet the needs…

An exploratory study examined the influence of teaching conditions and instructional strategies on student reading performance in Latvia and compared influences to those in other countries. A representative sample of students was drawn from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Reading Literacy Study in…

This report summarizes results of three focus groups which examined teachers' ideas and attitudes about the utility of research on the practice of teaching reading to students with learning disabilities and about forms of communication that would make research information more useful. The focus groups were part of a larger project designed to…