The contemporary university is an uncomfortable amalgamation of ambitions once held by a variety of educational institutions. It owes debts to the philosophical schools of Ancient Greece and Rome, to the monasteries of the Middle Ages, to the theological colleges of Paris, Padua, and Bologna and to the research laboratories of early modern…

In this article we offer a narrative account of three faculty development groups on one campus: an interdisciplinary summer reading group, a writers group, and a spiritual formation group. Grounded in the literature on Christian friendship, the narrative testifies to the development, characteristics, and impact of these groups. We conclude that…

There are three strategies for critically evaluating information on the Internet: (1) examining initial markers (superficial characteristics of a website that can help make an initial judgment); (2) corroborating information (looking to other trusted sources to verify information); and (3) determining author bias (analyzing the author's intent for…

Can you teach another person to read? For readers, this may seem a redundant and unnecessary question. However, it is a perfectly logical query and one that is much more profound than one might imagine. Most reading teachers have had the experience of nurturing and guiding a young person from infancy as a reader through maturity with the printed…

Differentiated instruction has been around for over fifteen years, and like many educational practices, the attention to it is cyclical. In this article, the author talks about how differentiated instruction is used to teach reading. The author also talks about the role of library media specialists in differentiated instruction in reading.

This purpose of this investigation was to examine the level of training and perceptions regarding reading assessment by elementary teachers in a suburban school district. The teachers were given an on-line survey to complete in the spring of 2011. While the response rate to the survey was fairly low, the teachers who did respond indicated that …

Mounting evidence suggests that the traditional sequence of developmental education courses hinders community college students from entering college-level coursework and ultimately earning a credential. For example, using data from colleges participating in the Achieving the Dream initiative, an analysis by Bailey, Jeong, and Cho (2010) found that…

School accountability and high-stakes testing often shift classroom focus from the use of engaging learning activities that promote critical thinking and creativity to simple test preparation practices. Using brain research as a guide, educators may be able to improve test scores, while still providing a balanced education that promotes critical…

The computer-based testing mode has received limited research as a task condition for elementary students as it relates to comprehension for both narrative and expository text. The majority of schools now use computer-based testing to measure students' progress for end of the year exams. Additionally, schools are also delivering state-wide…

My purpose in this collective case study was to identify ways in which teacher education, and coaching specifically, supports teacher change. I was particularly interested in considering what types of feedback are best at what times in the teacher education process. I investigated how coaching and other teacher education processes support…

For the last two years the author has used Repeated Reading (RR) to teach reading fluency in English as a Foreign Language classrooms in colleges and universities in Japan. RR is a method where the student reads and rereads a text silently or aloud from two to four times to reach a predetermined level of speed, accuracy, and comprehension. RR…

When the teaching of strategies for understanding literature crowds out a close reading of literary works themselves, something is amiss in language arts instruction, and students lose out. This has become the case in too many elementary and even secondary classrooms today, Senechal believes. Using a strategy-based lesson proposed by Stephanie…

In the struggle to raise U.S. students' achievement in literacy, Hartnett-Edwards says, the emphasis has shifted from finding the right materials to creating better teachers. Central to creating better teachers are literacy coaches. The author claims that the role of literacy/reading coach has evolved beyond its roots in NCLB legislation, when…

In this article, the authors make a case for teaching vocabulary in the elementary grades through a focus on the morphological structure of words, in particular English words that are derived through Latin and Greek roots and affixes. The authors present a set of engaging instructional ideas for the use of Latin and Greek derivations to teach…

This article argues that the processes of enactment and justification comprise two key, underdeveloped aspects of sensemaking theory as applied to educational organizations. Enactment and justification are illustrated using examples drawn from a school that significantly changed the way in which it coordinated reading instruction. Examples drawn…