Written expressly for preschool teachers, this engaging book explains the "whats," "whys," and "how-tos" of implementing best practices for instruction in the preschool classroom. The authors show how to target key areas of language and literacy development across the entire school day, including whole-group and small-group activities, center…

The State of Florida launched the College and Career Readiness Initiative to improve student readiness for postsecondary education and promote success after high school graduation. During the 2008 legislative session, s. 1008.30 (3), F.S., (also known as Senate Bill (SB) "1908") was revised to provide an opportunity for postsecondary…

Student goal setting and academic planning has been a major focus for PUSD, with the aim of increasing the level of student engagement and student ownership over their learning. Goal setting has been implemented in conjunction with the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) tests, which provide educators with a tool…

This article presents a detailed case study analysis of oral and written language expressed by Jacqueline Meyer, a teacher of elementary English Language Learners (ELL),as she struggled to navigate the current political terrain with her students. Ms. Meyer's district adopted commercial materials and increased the amount and substance of testing…

We investigated the effect of repeated readings of an electronic book (e-book) on pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children from low (n = 127) and middle (n = 120) SES groups. Children were randomly assigned to one of three options: reading an e-book in five sessions, reading an e-book in three sessions, or receiving the regular kindergarten…

The purpose of this study was to determine how a response-to-intervention (RTI) model was implemented with a large percentage of Latino English language learners who were having reading difficulties in an urban elementary school at the primary level (K-2). The authors sought to describe school personnel's perceptions of RTI, what the model looked…

The work described in this paper explores the feasibility of using of a wireless handheld system (WHS) that supports the individual and co-operative reading activities of students and helps teachers implement reading strategy instruction in Chinese language classes. The experimental findings demonstrate that the WHS benefits students applying…

The purposes of this study were to investigate the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills with a sample of adult basic education (ABE) learners, including both native and nonnative English speakers, and to describe the performance of those learners on the measures. Investigation of measures of reading components…

A school improvement program that provided support to poor-performing schools on the basis of needs identified in a school improvement plan was implemented in 72 government schools in Jamaica, from 1998 to 2005. In this independent evaluation of the program, we use propensity score matching to create, post hoc, a control group of schools that were…

When the author asked her eighth-grade students to list some reading strategies, they were well prepared to answer her. But when she asked them how they knew they did not understand what they were reading--in other words, how they knew they need to use these reading strategies--they were unable to produce an explanation. She launched an action…

In the era of No Child Left Behind, what literacy research is still needed? How should it be conducted? And what role does research play in determining the kinds of literacy experiences that actually take place in classrooms? This forward-thinking book brings together leading authorities to address these vital and hotly debated questions.…

Students are challenged to pass mandated tests in grades three through eight and the exit test on the secondary school level in order to be promoted to the next higher grade level or to receive a high school diploma. Failure is certainly a negative experience. It behooves reading teachers to assist learners to attach meaning to what is being…

This article approaches reading as an ideologically grounded and institutionally organized activity. It examines children's clandestine practice of interactional reading in an educational context where individual silent involvement with text is the teachers' prescribed way of reading. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in second- and…

Following the lead of two Reading Styles Model Schools, this article presents the best practices to transform struggling, at-risk readers into successful, lifelong readers. By eliminating practices that make learning to read difficult in favor of practices that facilitate learning to read, principals can ensure that their students enjoy reading,…

This study examines the relation of language arts instruction to students' letter-word reading skill growth from the beginning of 1st grade to the end of 2nd grade using cross-classified random effects models. Amounts of teacher-managed, code-focused instruction in 1st and 2nd grade each uniquely predicted students' letter-word reading skill…