This book focuses on how to provide effective instruction to K-12 students who find writing challenging, including English language learners and those with learning disabilities or language impairments. Prominent experts illuminate the nature of writing difficulties and offer practical suggestions for building students' skills at the word,…

Teaching students the intelligent behaviors they need to succeed in school and later in life is much easier when you have this collection of stories and observations from teachers who have used the principles of ASCD's book "Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind" in their classrooms. Through these first-hand accounts, learn how the habits of…

In "Effective Literacy Coaching: Building Expertise and a Culture of Literacy," literacy experts Shari Frost, Roberta Buhle, and Camille Blachowicz provide more than 50 practical activities designed to help K-12 literacy professionals: (1) Assess the current literacy program; (2) Plan changes that will foster a culture of literacy; (3) Collaborate…

This study reports a randomized controlled trial evaluation of a computer-based balanced literacy intervention, ABRACADABRA (http://grover.concordia.ca/abra/version1/abracadabra.html). Children (N = 144) in Grade 1 were exposed either to computer activities for word analysis, text comprehension, and fluency, alongside shared stories (experimental…

Bill and Karen are special education teachers who have entirely different knowledge and skill profiles. Bill is a special educator with 20 years of experience. He teaches reading to third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students in a high-poverty elementary school resource classroom. His school is currently engaging in a schoolwide Reading First effort…

The socioemotional factors, which influence students' trajectories on their pathways to reading success, are often overlooked in literacy screenings and reading instruction. This article outlines the connections between personality factors, in particular resilient personalities, and early literacy success. It also offers teachers a series of six…

This paper aims to analyze and expound the implementing of communicative activities in English Reading classroom. It is mainly taken from these aspects: 1) polishing teacher's role in communicative activities; 2) Specific communicative activities in classroom; 3) Teacher's questions; 4) Teacher's evaluation. It is believed that communicative…

The purpose of this practice brief is to provide schools, districts, and states with background knowledge about best practices for older students who struggle to read. It focuses on the reading skills that adolescents need to more fully access content-area curricula and, in turn, secure a productive future. The authors define adolescent reading as…

The 2007-08 Annual Report presents and analyzes the performance of students in Nebraska Reading First schools during the 2007-08 school year. Teacher log information is also presented, and a district performance comparison is made from the year just previous to Reading First implementation across the four years of implementation. [This report was…

Parents and caregivers can play an important role in helping their at-risk children improve their reading skills. Parents generally want to be part of their children's academic achievement, but may not always know the most appropriate or effective way to contribute. Teachers encourage at-risk students to read consistently at home and supportive…

The authors offer specific classroom practices that help K-9 students compare and evaluate print and online sources, develop vocabulary, build study and test-taking skills, and become motivated readers. The second edition reflects new research on informational literacy and academic and content-specific vocabulary development, and also discusses…

There is a large collection of students who experience difficulty with the development of reading fluency and comprehension. Many students receive little to no benefit from non-systematic instructional methods. In order to become proficient readers many students need explicit instruction in fluency to serve as a building block to comprehension.…

This article explores similarities in literacy learning across various life-span stages and considers what actions must be taken to improve literacy attainment and achievement, whether the delivery site is prekindergarten, elementary, secondary, adult, family, workplace, volunteer, or community literacy. The emphasis here is on what it takes to…

The article presents a model of an effectively implemented visual phonics intervention program for kindergarten children at high risk for reading failure in a general education classroom. There is a growing body of professional literature documenting the effectiveness of visual phonics for children who are hard-of-hearing or deaf. There is little…

Phonological awareness is one of several key precursor skills to conventional literacy that develop during the preschool period. Significant amounts of research support the causal and predictive relation between phonological awareness and children's ease of learning to decode and spell. However, many preschool curricula and early childhood…