The Rose Review into the teaching of early reading recommended that the conceptual framework incorporated into the National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching--the Searchlights model of reading and its development--should be replaced by the Simple View of Reading. In this paper, we demonstrate how these two frameworks relate to each other,…

This article informs about a multidisciplinary learning community targeting first year students from diverse cultural backgrounds at an urban community college. The combination of English, art, and philosophy of art in a "Creativity Cluster" offers an excellent opportunity for great teaching and learning experiences. Yet, how can faculty…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of collaborative efforts between a large metropolitan school district and the school of education at an area urban university. A reading clinic, in which university students conducted small guided reading group lessons with elementary students reading below grade level, was established through…

As more English learners (ELs) are included in mainstream content classrooms at the secondary level, the need to understand how teachers collaborate to meet the particular instructional needs of ELs is essential. This paper presents findings from a qualitative case study that investigated the collaborative work that engaged a group of literacy…

This paper describes an intervention programme that was originally intended to support transition to English as language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in Grade 4 in a township school, using a pre- and post-test design. Because the pre-tests revealed very poor literacy levels in both Zulu home language and English, the intervention programme was…

The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of the published research-based strategies used in content area instruction for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Twenty-eight (N = 28) studies published from 2000-2012 that met the criteria for inclusion were located, reviewed, and synthesized. Findings revealed the…

This study examined how stakeholders in one school district located in a remote town perceived the instructional improvement efforts of the district, as well as the constraints and enablers of implementing instructional reforms. A qualitative approach, consisting mainly of interviews with teachers, principals, district administrators, and other…

The growing availability of data linking students to classroom teachers has made it possible to estimate the contribution teachers make to student achievement. While there is a growing consensus that teacher quality is important and current evaluation systems are inadequate, many have expressed concerns over the use of value-added measures (VAMs)…

This is a literature review of studies and articles surrounding the issue of literacy strategies for adolescents in high school who continue to struggle with reading. It is also a review of research about where literacy interventions should take place and what obstacles may keep the strategies from either being effective or serving the best…

This study explored the use of animal-assisted therapy with students identified with a learning disability and limited reading success. Initially, reading progress was defined as the participants' comprehension rate obtained from an oral Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) passage. The nature of the Informal Reading Inventory requires the…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate if students who read decodable books during independent reading time improved word reading and decoding skills more than students who read authentic literature during independent reading time but received the same instruction. The study was conducted for 10 weeks with 62 second-grade…

Would you like your students to be excited when they read a new word and keen to work out its meaning straight away? This book will turn them into word detectives, ready to tackle any new word they come across. And when writing, would you like them to make sentences that have interesting and descriptive words like "shamble," "ravenous" or…

This project is a multi-site, multi-year study designed to test the efficacy of a fully developed intervention, Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR), with adolescent readers. In year 1, the research questions were: (1) "Does CSR improve reading comprehension for adolescent readers attending relatively low SES schools?"; and (2)…

This study examines and describes (1) why parents of struggling readers decide they must become active advocates for changes in their child's education and (2) how such parents learn to negotiate school organization in this advocacy. Advocacy is defined as any activity parents go about to access appropriate reading instruction for their child,…

The purpose of this multi-method study was to describe early childhood teachers' beliefs regarding what motivates and what presents barriers to reading for boys. This study used the two data collection strategies of an online survey and interviews. The research questions guiding this study were: (1) what do early childhood teachers believe boys…