This article reports on 2 experiments in inner-city Baltimore evaluating a computer-assisted tutoring approach, Tutoring With Alphie (TWA), in which 1 paraprofessional can work with up to 6 children at a time. In Study 1, we randomly assigned 14 schools to receive TWA or to continue with whatever approaches they were currently using. Each…

Reading and comprehending content area texts require learners to effectively select and encode with hierarchically strategic memory structures in order to combine new information with prior knowledge. Unfortunately, evidence from state and national tests shows that children fail to successfully navigate the reading comprehension challenges they…

The authors describe a month-long unit on Afro-Latin@ identity in which third grade students began with a discussion of complex questions with which many historians, anthropologists, and scholars struggle to make sense. The goal of this month-long unit was to have students adopt the lens of cultural anthropologists as they explored the historical…

Writing plays a significant role in language learning. Previous research has reported on the effectiveness of several approaches to develop writing skills to enhance writing competence, but little attention has been given to the paragraph writing of elementary students. The present qualitative action research study used artifacts, teacher's…

"Leveled Literacy Intervention" ("LLI") is a short-term, supplementary, small-group literacy intervention designed to help struggling readers achieve grade-level competency. The intervention provides explicit instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, oral language skills, and…

The intent of this qualitative case study was to take an in-depth look at the perceived benefit or lack thereof of a programmed reading curriculum for students with moderate cognitive disabilities within a Title 1 inner-city school. The rationale for the study was that students with moderate cognitive disabilities have difficulties learning to…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the EMBRACE Spanish support intervention for at-risk dual language learners and to determine which verbal and nonverbal characteristics of students were related to benefit from the intervention. The first study examined oral language and reading characteristics and the second study…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore ways in which third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers reported they successfully improved the reading achievement of students with LD as documented by an increase in test scores on standardized tests in reading. Moreover, this study is an examination of productive ways in which elementary classroom…

Learning by example is nothing new to the education landscape. Research into think-aloud protocols, though often used as a form of assessment rather than instruction, provided practical, content-specific literacy strategies for crafting the instructional intervention in this study. Additionally, research into worked examples--from the earliest…

This report presents the results of the diagnostic study conducted between October 2013 and December 2014, as part of an ambitious capacity-building project targeting the increase of children's literacy levels across three West African countries. The project "Improving Learning Outcomes in Early Grade Reading: Integration of Curriculum,…

The study explores the social practice of vocabulary learning by examining vocabulary teaching techniques employed by teachers, the vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) identified by students as most useful and the ones they felt most competent in using when reading and teachers' and students' attitudes towards learning vocabulary through…

Initial teacher education (ITE) serves as a bridge between prospective teachers exiting the school system to enrol in teacher education faculties, on the one hand and newly qualified teachers (NQTs) who are embarking on a career in schooling on the other. The present paper describes the language and thinking skills student teachers bring to their…

Refugee students arrive in Canada with varying amounts of previous formal education. School-aged refugees who lack a solid first language education may find learning to read in English and studying subject content especially challenging. If these students leave school, they depart with inadequate English reading proficiency for further academics…

Florida law requires the 100 lowest performing elementary schools in reading to extend the school day by one hour to provide supplemental reading instruction. This study found that those schools were smaller than other elementary schools and served a higher proportion of racial/ethnic minority students and students eligible for the school lunch…

The notably low level of reading proficiency across the United States, combined with the known importance of teachers for student success, necessitates improved understanding of teachers' knowledge, how it is acquired, and its role in instruction. This study had four goals: (1) identify whether domains of content knowledge and pedagogical content…