Critical issues are confronting educators regarding increasing student achievement levels in reading, math and science in United States' public schools. Educators and legislators are attempting to make radical changes in instructional methodology and to find viable and sustainable solutions to problems associated with poor student achievement.…

This study investigated the effects of teacher sense of efficacy for literacy instruction on reading achievement in grades three through eight. In previous studies, a teacher's sense of efficacy was shown to be correlated to student achievement (Ashton & Webb, 1986; Moore & Esselman, 1992). However, research attempting to uncover the…

Through a single-subject multiple-baseline across-participants design, the present study examined the effects of Reciprocal Teaching (RT) instruction and Spanish use on the cognitive strategy use and English reading comprehension of four, 4th grade Spanish-speaking bilingual students that are "good" decoders but "poor"…

Recent statements from teachers of English and literacy (NCTE, 2007) have voiced the failure of schools to help minority students and ELLs close the literacy achievement gap and the responsibility of all teachers to help with this endeavor. Central to this effort in secondary schools are the content area teachers, as their subjects constitute the…

This mixed-methods, collective case study approach explored how one district's forty-four language arts teachers in grades 6, 7, and 8 used their core literacy programs to incorporate the nine instructional elements recommended by the Reading Next report (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006) into the district's literacy program. Acknowledging…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Let's Get Digital: First-Ever National Digital Learning Day Attracts Participation from Thirty-Nine States, 19,000…

It is possible to create a literacy block where teachers meet with students for guided reading and writing conferences, and provide daily explicit instruction in both reading and writing. A comprehensive look at literacy and learning, "100 Minutes" shows teachers how to fit balanced literacy into a daily 100-minute literacy block using a framework…

Multimodal learning clubs link principles of motivation and engagement with 21st century technological tools and texts to support content area learning. The author describes how a sixth grade health teacher and his class incorporated multimodal learning clubs into a unit of study on human body systems. The students worked collaboratively online…

Purpose: This is an exploratory study of reading behaviors and interest among students residing in a female residential college of Kolej Datin Seri Endon (KDSE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and the use of reading stations (RS) placed at strategic locations throughout the main campus. The UTM's Vice Chancellor project of developing various…

Giving iPads to first graders is a leap of faith that many teachers are understandably hesitant to take, especially if their students need immediate reading intervention and school leaders want guaranteed results. This article discusses how the authors took on the challenge of improving elementary reading using iPads, found surprising success for…

This article is written as a practical guide to aid teachers in metacognitive reading strategy instruction. The nature of metacognitive strategies is explored, followed by specific procedures for implementing effective metacognitive strategy instruction in the adult ESL classroom. Chamot and O'Malley's (1994) five-phase strategy instruction…

In 1999, the National Reading Panel investigated arguments regarding how best to teach reading. The members of the panel examined thousands of articles on literacy development and identified six key factors in teaching reading. Further, the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2001 obligated teachers to use scientifically proven practices, or…

The effect of two training procedures on the development of reading speed in poor readers is examined. One training concentrates on the words the children read correctly ("successes"), the other on the words they read incorrectly ("failures"). Children were either informed or not informed about the training focus. A randomized controlled trial was…

Coteaching might be described as educators bringing to the table what they do best. When these educators' skills and talents are interwoven, a unique design evolves that is most successful in supporting student learning outcomes. Dumbarton Elementary School (Henrico County, Virginia) is a Title 1 school with a very diverse student population.…

As a well-known advocate for promoting wider reading and reading engagement among all children--and founder of a reading program for foster children--Pam Allyn knows that struggling readers often face any printed text with fear and confusion, like Max in the book Where the Wild Things Are. She argues that teachers need to actively create a…