No two students in grades 4-8 are identical, and many struggle with literacy for different reasons. Using a teacher-friendly, hands-on approach, this eminently practical book walks educators through the nuts and bolts of literacy intervention in the middle grades. Highlights include "North Star" principles to orient instruction, an…

The problem addressed in this study is that the low reading proficiency levels of marginalized elementary students significantly affect their future academic achievement and life outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to investigate the differences in the reading proficiency levels of marginalized Grade 3-5 students in a…

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosis and is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States for both men and women. The etiologies of many different types of lung cancer can be linked to risk factors that can be prevented, such as chronic tobacco smoking. Lung cancer is significantly more prevalent among…

Helping elementary students with learning disabilities (LD) prepare for the rigor of middle school writing is an instructional priority. Fortunately, several standards-based skills in upper elementary school and middle school overlap. Teachers in upper elementary grades, specifically fourth and fifth grades, have the opportunity to provide…

Students who are identified as underachieving receive additional academic support through a mechanism called response to intervention (RtI). This model takes a systematic and proactive approach to addressing learning disparities among children. If screening indicates that a child is not meeting grade level expectations, more intensive support is…

A group of elementary school reading teachers used their time in a Professional Learning Community to develop a systematic intervention to address the needs of struggling readers in grades 3 to 5. Working as a team, they identified a collection of books that was culturally diverse, high interest, appealing to boys and girls, aligned with…

Since its publication in 2012, "The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students" has helped countless classroom teachers, special educators, and others implement an effective, new approach to teaching focused on skill-building, practical interventions, and purposeful, positive interactions…

Research strongly suggests that visual supports, such as pictures, prompts, cue cards, story boards, graphic schedules, and diagrams, have been effective for providing instructional structure for a wide variety of children and for multiple activities. Making successful transitions from one activity to another is difficult for many children,…

We report the results of a study with 30 teachers designed to examine the effects of teacher knowledge on the achievement of struggling readers. We worked with teachers of grades three, four, and five during a 10-day intervention focused on literacy instruction and related linguistic knowledge, and we assessed their students' learning across the…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals that 37 percent of U.S. fourth graders fail to achieve basic levels of reading achievement. In 1997, the U.S. Congress asked that a review of research be conducted to determine what could be done to improve reading and writing achievement. The resulting "Report of the National Reading…

Useful for small groups or one-on-one instruction, this book offers successful math interventions and response to intervention (RTI) connections. Teachers will learn to target math instruction to struggling students by: (1) Diagnosing weaknesses; (2) Providing specific, differentiated instruction; (3) Using formative assessments; (4) Offering…

This educational program on drugs and alcohol provides a "No-Use" message to students. The curriculum maintains that alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs are unhealthy and harmful, and that society's laws and values are to be respected. The lessons build students' resistance to influences that encourage drug abuse and they promote safe, healthy,…

The purpose of this project was to develop, implement, and evaluate a simple, teacher-friendly, environmentally-based anxiety reduction intervention for fourth-grade students. Review of related literature indicates that children are often victims of stress due to academic and sociological variables which exist within the school environment.…