This study explored the use of animal-assisted therapy with students identified with a learning disability and limited reading success. Initially, reading progress was defined as the participants' comprehension rate obtained from an oral Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) passage. The nature of the Informal Reading Inventory requires the…

Participants (115 low-socioeconomic-status [SES], inner-city, high-school students) were exposed to three reading conditions: (1) a control condition in which students silently read brief selected passages; (2) an experimental condition in which students were prompted to perform a three-part (Ask, Read, and Tell [ART]) comprehension enhancement…

Mandates emphasizing student achievement have increased the importance of appropriate assessment techniques for students in general and special education classrooms. Informal reading inventories (IRIs), designed by classroom teachers, have been proven to be an efficient and effective way to determine students' strengths, weaknesses, and strategies…

To examine the second-language reading development of 45 fourth-grade Latino bilinguals, a sequential mixed methods study was conducted in two phases (Creswell, 2009). The quantitative data collected in the first phase generated an index of the group's reading performance based on two grade-level assessments, a state-mandated standardized reading…

The purpose of this study was to determine if a summer camp utilizing academic and behavioral remediation programming could increase the academic achievement of children with autism spectrum disorders. Academic achievement was measured using the Wide Range Achievement Test-Fourth Edition (WRAT4; Wilkinson & Robertson, 2006) and an Informal…

This study describes six first-grade students' use of metacognitive strategies. The students (4 boys and 2 girls) represented low, average, and above-average readers and were enrolled in a rural Midwestern elementary school. A variety of data were collected throughout the year: (a) an informal reading inventory and metacognitive awareness…

This volume is a milestone year for the Yearbook, the conference, and the College Reading Association (CRA). At this conference, CRA celebrated its 50th year. The title of this thirty-first yearbook mirrors the theme of the 2008 conference--"Mentoring Literacy Professionals for 50 Years." The title "Mentoring Literacy Professionals:…

To examine factors predictive of successful 4th-grade 2nd language reading, I used a hierarchical multiple regression equation that included Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Reading percentile rank as the criterion variable. The equation tested 5 predictor variables: English language proficiency, years of U.S. schooling, and 3…

This longitudinal study investigated children's performance on several informal reading and spelling tasks. Students (n = 274) in a rural North Carolina county were assessed across grades 2 to 6 on the following measures: isolated word recognition (timed and untimed), oral reading accuracy, reading comprehension, reading rate, and spelling.…

Informal classroom assessments remain essential tools for improving the instruction of students, even in an age of accountability testing. This article focuses specifically on Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs). Even though the growing number of commercially available IRIs has made choosing the ones most suitable for students' and teachers' needs…

Reading Success is an individualized teacher-guided literacy program proven for 663 students who experienced difficulty with reading. The students had learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, and behavior challenges; were at risk for school failure; or were transitioning from speaking Spanish to English and experiencing literacy problems.…

Struggling readers may regularly worry about reading at an appropriate speed and intonation. Fluency is a "hot" topic according to Jack Cassidy's annual reading survey published in "Reading Today," in which he interviews various literacy experts throughout the United States on the hot and not-so-hot reading topics. Fluency…

The authors explored the credibility of using informal reading inventories and writing samples for 138 students (K-4) to evaluate the effectiveness of a summer literacy program. Running Records (a measure of a child's reading level) and teacher experience during daily reading instruction were used to estimate the reliability of the more formal…

The theme for the 58th annual conference of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) was Bridging Cultures Through Literacy. In the first section of the Yearbook, Parker Fawson's presidential address captures the unique nature of ALER and its role in his professional development, and then moved beyond to capture the changing…