Previous research suggests that activating background knowledge immediately prior to read-alouds in Kindergarten is an important strategy for improving children's learning (e.g. Cervetti & Hiebert, 2015). But, because children's background knowledge varies considerably at the individual level, teachers are also often providing relevant…

In this study, we developed a Reading for Meaning special education teacher observation rubric that details the elements of evidence-based comprehension instruction and tested its psychometric properties using many-faceted Rasch measurement (MFRM). Video observations of classroom instruction from 10 special education teachers across three states…

Pearson sought to explore whether the use of Bug Club, an online and in-print reading scheme targeted at ages 4-11, is related to pupils' literacy learning, attitudes to reading and school, and reading activity. This Research Report presents findings from one research study: a multi-approach evaluation we conducted in collaboration with University…

Purpose: In this discussion as part of a response to Catts and Kamhi's "Prologue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Activity" (2017), the authors provide selected examples from 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade texts to demonstrate, in agreement with Catts and Kamhi, that reading comprehension is a multifaceted and complex ability. The…

We examined longhand note taking strategies when reading and summarizing a source text that was formatted with bullets or that was presented in a single paragraph. We analyzed cognitive effort when reading the source text, when jotting notes, when reading the notes, and when composing the summary, as well as time spent in these activities and the…

The goal of this study was to evaluate the extent to which training that emphasizes the process of executive function (EF) and self-regulated learning (SRL) would result in increased reading comprehension; we also evaluated interrelationships of EF, SRL, and reading. We report an experiment (N = 75 fourth graders) that contrasted two…

In this article the authors describe how a specific technique--having learners create cartoons based on a reading passage--helped learners explore their understanding of reading passages and helped the teachers reflect on what the learners had comprehended.

Research on multiple source use concerns how readers handle a number of different, often conflicting or discrepant, information sources to construct a mental representation of content. Students are increasingly being exposed to such complex reading situations, both in and outside of school. The digital world demands multiple source use, and…

This study aimed to examine, from a cross-sectional perspective, the extent to which the simple view of reading (SVR) model can be adapted to the Arabic language. This was carried out by verifying, in both beginning and more skilled readers, whether the unique orthographical and morphological characteristics of Arabic contribute to reading…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of reading modality (oral versus silent) and passage genre (narrative versus expository) on the reading comprehension of middle school students. A normative sample of sixth- and seventh-grade students (n = 175) read narrative and expository texts from the Qualitative Reading Inventory,…

In this article, the authors provide a menu of nine discussion frameworks from which teachers can choose to engage students in collaborative conversations about text in order to foster reading comprehension and address the Common Core State Standards. Some of the frameworks identified in this article are better suited to instructional goals that…

This study investigated direct and indirect effects between oral reading fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension across reading development in European Portuguese. Participants were 329 children attending basic education, from grade 1 to grade 6. The results of path analyses showed that text reading fluency is much more dependent on the…

The Common Core State Standards bring the importance of connecting texts to the forefront by sharing that students must be able to "analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches authors take" (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council…

This study explored components of language comprehension (vocabulary, grammar, and higher-level language) skills for poor comprehenders in French immersion. We identified three groups of bilingual comprehenders (poor, average, and good) based on English reading performance and compared their language comprehension skills in English L1 and French…

Research has indicated that a large percentage of primary-grade students who struggle in reading have not achieved full competency in the foundational reading competencies (word recognition and fluency). In this article, the author argues that more intensive instruction of the foundational competencies is needed and proposes a simple lesson…