Describes the use of improvisational drama as a tool to develop reading comprehension skills. Discusses planning improvisational drama, implementing improvisational drama, overcoming obstacles and meeting challenges, and evaluating improvisational drama. An insert summarizes what the research says about effective reading instruction. Examples of…

Focuses on the complementary model of Lawton's (1999) three collaborative instructional models. Notes that the complementary model establishes the classroom teacher as the educator primarily responsible for instruction. Discusses collaboration during reading instruction, helping students prepare to read, helping students engage in the reading…

Considers how to teach children to become proficient readers and writers in combination with teaching them to appreciate the "art form" of language. Argues that it is unrealistic to expect teachers with pressing responsibilities to regard children's literature as sacred texts--art forms that are too fragile to be transgressed upon by instructional…

Discusses the authors' respective journeys as learners striving to become literacy teachers able to make a difference in the lives of children. Tells their stories of working together as a small community of learners in a year to explore effective literacy teaching and learning. Concludes that each individual teacher is the key to effective…

Describes the work of Donald D. Durrell, a reading research leader, focusing on his work as a teacher. Explains his commitment to improving school classrooms as well as to his own university classroom. Highlights his early teaching years at Boston University, his deanship, his full-throttle years between deanship and retirement, and his retirement…

Explores the bi-directional benefits of family literacy practices involving English as a Second Language (ESL) immigrant parents and their children. Discusses the literature on family literacy and culturally relevant texts. Shares and analyzes the case of a shared reading practice. Suggests that this informal family literacy practice could help to…

Reviews the literature on decodable text, instructional material containing words with phonically regular relationships that the reader has been taught. Synthesizes findings into a theoretical model that suggests a specific developmental juncture in which decodable text may be useful. Concludes that additional analyses of words in text are not…

Presents a Holocaust literature class that brings new voices to the community college literature curriculum. Describes a course that involves reading five survivors' autobiographies, hearing four survivor speakers, one of whom was one of the authors, and hearing a speaker who had researched the murder and victimization of her family during the…

Discusses research on academically effective literacy programs at the middle level. Notes characteristics of these programs, including teaching teams, student collaboration, learning across the curriculum, scheduling, and teachers trained in reading. (JPB)

This study examined whether use of sign language would facilitate reading word recognition by 16 deaf children (6- to 1 years-old) in the Netherlands. Results indicated that if words were learned through speech, accompanied by the relevant sign, accuracy of word recognition was greater than if words were learned solely through speech. (Contains…

Gives a brief history of miscue analysis, and then describes miscue analysis procedures, how to code and analyze miscues, and the reader's knowledge of the language cuing systems. Includes an appendix of markings for miscue analysis. (SR)

Finds four categories of instructional practice: background knowledge, vocabulary, alignment, and imagery. Notes that teachers had many different ways of enacting practices within the categories, and that some of the practices had strong theoretical and research support, while most did not. Explores connections between what teachers did and what…

Describes how a group of professionals at a school near San Antonio, Texas, worked together to change the reading curriculum from a traditional basal reading program to an approach built around quality literature. (SR)

Considers the relationship between hobbies and hobby-related reading to evaluate a common instructional assumption about using hobbies as a basis for recommending reading. Supports: (1) the potential for recommending authentic, non-traditional hobby-related reading materials in home and instructional settings; and (2) the potential for tapping the…

Describes the development of an online developmental reading course with asynchronous interaction among the students and instructor. Recommends using research on effective readers and effective reading instruction to dictate course curriculum and instruction; using online course packages to deliver the course; and piloting the course on-campus…