This qualitative case study explored the factors that contributed to how typical book reading practices and the time spent on book reading were implemented during the school day. Previous research has shown the importance of reading books to young children and that providing access to books has led to reading growth and progress. However, little…

This article offers guidance to teachers and students in selecting materials for extensive reading (ER). First, the article explains characteristics of ER and reviews some of the potential gains for students who do ER. Second, the article considers criteria for teachers to bear in mind when selecting ER materials. Third, the article then suggests…

A multiple-baseline across-students design was used to evaluate the effects of a computer-based flashcard reading (CFR) intervention, developed using Microsoft PowerPoint software, on students' ability to read health-related words within 3 seconds. The students were three adults with intellectual disabilities enrolled in a postsecondary college…

Recent theories of short-term memory (STM) distinguish between item information, which reflects the temporary activation of long-term representations stored in the language system, and serial-order information, which is encoded in a specific representational system that is independent of the language network. Some studies examining the…

This study investigated the use of computer-aided instruction (CAI) as an intervention for kindergarten students at risk for reading failure. Headsprout Early Reading (Headsprout 2005), a type of CAI, provides internet-based, reading instruction incorporating the critical components of reading instruction cited by the National Reading Panel (NRP…

This study of English as a second language (ESL) reading textbooks investigates cohesion in reading passages from 27 textbooks. The guiding research questions were whether and how cohesion differs across textbooks written for beginning, intermediate, and advanced second language readers. Using a computational tool called Coh-Metrix, textual…

This qualitative study investigated high school reading programs and participants focusing on the insider perspectives of teachers and their students. The study occurred in two sites, one in a Southern state and the other in an Eastern state. The participants, five high school reading teachers and two to three students in each of their reading…

Asking questions that invite students to access advanced thinking skills during classroom discourse is a key strategy for challenging and supporting high-ability middle school readers. This critical teaching practice requires careful teacher listening. However, empirical research around teachers' "listening orientations," or how teachers…

Research has shown that phonological decoding is critical for orthographic learning of new words during independent reading. Moreover, correlational studies have demonstrated that the strength of orthographic learning is related to the orthographic knowledge with which readers approach a text. The present training study was conducted to assess…

Learning a foreign language is a critical skill in the current context of globalization and multicultural communication. Present secondary and post-secondary foreign language classes admit increasing numbers of students with learning disabilities (LD). Given the particular challenges faced by these students in the area of language processing,…

In English, gains in decoding skill do not map directly onto increases in word reading. However, beyond the Self-Teaching Hypothesis, little is known about the transfer of decoding skills to word reading. In this study, we offer a new approach to testing specific decoding elements on transfer to word reading. To illustrate, we modeled word-reading…

This article presents an overview of literacy teaching and learning, based on the author's extensive research and, in particular, the recently revised and extended "Learning to be Literate: Insights from Research for Policy and Practice" (Routledge, 2016). It is set against a background in England in which government policy dictates…

The article examines the results of two quasi-experimental studies of the implementation and impact of the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), an intervention designed to support secondary teachers' transition to Common Core State Standards in English language arts. The first study examines LDC implementation by eighth-grade social studies and…

Reading teachers have exercised tremendous efforts to differentiate instructions based on the influence of the Elementary and Secondary Act (Putman, Smith, & Cassady, 2009, "Promoting Change through Professional Development: The Place of Teacher Intentionality in Reading Instruction"). These efforts are used to promote success for…

College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS) set the expectation that students will be able to navigate multiple texts, evaluate the claims that authors make, notice and account for any conflicting points of view, and synthesize information as they develop an understanding of a concept or event. CCRS establish these learning expectations, but they do…