The opportunity for students to successfully complete the material increases when teachers take time and care about what they are reading. Students can read the contents of a text successfully if they keep their thoughts moving and ideas developing.

Even before they are able to read, young children possess many skills that can help pave the way for literacy. For example, preschoolers have sizable spoken vocabularies and often know that English words are read from left to right. The focus of this article is on another type of knowledge that many preschoolers possess--knowledge of the names of…

This article explores ways in which children's picture books form networks of relationships, and their implications for readers and classroom teachers. In this exploration, reading is seen to involve making connections within and beyond the text at hand. These connections, evoked differently across readers, shape readers' interpretations of text.…

In this article the author argues that the new "brain glitch" research is theoretically, empirically, and conceptually deficient. The author states that claims about the results of brain imaging studies constitute an ideological barrier to a sounder understanding of the connections between brain activity and learning to read. This work is a danger…

Authentic literacy activities in the classroom replicate and reflect literacy activities that occur in people's lives outside of school and instructional contexts. A growing body of research supports use of such activities in teaching and learning. The authors elaborate on the definition of authentic literacy, describe supporting research and…

The spells of reform that have characterized the field of reading over the past several decades have often showered favor on their respective heroes and shunned others with rival views. "It's politics, There are "innies" and "outies," " as one former federal education official puts it. In the current drive for "research based" reading instruction,…

Despite decades of efforts, alarming statistics about the literacy crisis from secondary school teachers indicate that the reading abilities of the learners are inadequate for the materials to be taught and teachers wonder if adolescents are literate enough, language-wise, to leave school and enter colleges or universities. The common mode of…

Using a grounded theory approach to investigate the multidimensional reflections of two Reading Recovery teachers, this inquiry responds to calls for research on reflection and provides information for the field of education in understanding the nature of teachers' reflections and how they inform teaching practices. Reading Recovery is a…

A recent national study of state and local No Child Left Behind activities indicated that 80 percent of elementary teachers reported participating in 24 hours or less of professional development on reading instruction during the 2003-2004 school year and summer. Reading and professional development experts are concerned that this is not intensive…

"Acts of Reading" is an enchanting and scholarly review of the history of reading and texts for children, from the 18th century to the digital age and beyond. They are examined through the eyes of their various audiences: the children, writers, teachers and parents, so as to explore the act of reading itself, whether oral, silent or performative,…

Reading comprehension is a multidimensional process and a key component of this process is the activation of prior knowledge in the comprehension of text. This study utilized video clips as a means to anchor instruction and assist struggling middle-level readers in comprehending text. Participants in this study were 17 seventh- and eighth-grade…

This study examined the effects of a Direct Instruction (DI) reading program combined with Precision Teaching during a public school's summer program. Students received instruction from "Reading Mastery" programs for a six-week period. Students also practiced specific reading skills including letter-sound identification, sounding out…

The current trend in First Year Experience (FYE) courses is to add critical thinking through reading and writing. Research now suggests this design for a learning strategy based FYE course improves retention rates. This paper provides methods of incorporating critical thinking through reading and learning into the FYE course curriculum through a…

Two high school teachers of Deaf students and two teacher educators present this article about the use of graphic novels as an important genre for teaching literacy and academic skills in the high school classroom. During a summer session for failing Deaf students at a state-sponsored school, two English teachers taught and documented their…

The aim of this study is to explore the possible relationships between the readiness and reading and writing performances of a group of children who are first graders in an elementary school in Turkey. The states of children in terms of school readiness, sound-letter relationships, and phonemic awareness were determined individually during the…