Are you looking for ways to enhance and strengthen how you teach your students to write effective opinion pieces as outlined in the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards? In this teaching tip, the authors describe an innovative and dialogic approach that elementary school teachers can use and adapt as needed to strengthen students'…

Imagine a thriving English classroom. One that's active, experiential, collaborative, and rigorous. "Authentic Literacy Instruction" will help you not just imagine this classroom, but also create it. Through a hands-on approach to student-centered literacy, the authors share how to reinvigorate your love for what you do and refine your…

Middle grade students with disabilities that impact reading, including learning disabilities (LD) in reading, high functioning autism (ASD), and emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), and students atrisk for reading failure due to the effects of poverty often struggle to make knowledge-based inferences while reading informational texts. As a…

To assess education progress in the early grades and identify achievement gaps, this study examined reading achievement data for kindergarten and grade 1 students in two districts in Illinois: District U-46 (Elgin Area Schools) and District 186 (Springfield Public Schools). Drawing on a different reading assessment in each district, the study team…

In online and blended learning environments, students may experience learning barriers that are more pronounced than in the traditional classroom. When designing online instruction, teachers can use digital tools along with instructional strategies to reduce those barriers. Digital tools have various instructional and assistive features, which can…

About 15 percent of America's deaf and hard of hearing students are African American and about 25 percent are Hispanic/Latinix (Gallaudet Research Institute, 2011). This article documents a process that teachers who work with deaf or hard of hearing students can use to meet the diverse and individualized needs of their students while using…

This report is part of a series of four guidance reports that the EEF has produced on the theme of language and literacy. It focuses on pupils between the ages of 5 and 7 in Key Stage 1. However, it may also be applicable to older pupils who have fallen behind their peers, or younger pupils who are making rapid progress. Separate reports cover…

Many standard reading assessment approaches fail to capture the strengths and needs of students from diverse sociocultural, linguistic, and academic backgrounds. From expert authors, this book guides educators in planning and conducting meaningful, equitable assessments that empower K-5 teachers and students, inform responsive instruction, and…

Digital literacies abound in playing a foundational role in the rhythm and pattern of our lives, yet debates continue about how to harness them to teach and learn literacy. In an effort to humanize digital literacies, this department column offers a vast array of topics, from participatory work that pushes educators and researchers to communicate…

The research illustrated throughout this article supports the cycle of creating reading and behavior goals, monitoring of goals, and reflecting on goals to improve future goals. This article provides examples of how teachers of small-group reading interventions can incorporate these brief and targeted self-regulation interventions as part of…

The tool, "Elevating Instruction: A Planning Tool," was designed to aid teachers in improving literacy instruction to best meet the academic needs of all students, including advanced readers in the primary classroom. It is crucial for teachers to elevate reading practices for advanced readers during the time when young learners are…

If teachers have a deeper comprehension of their students' reading ability, it may lead to students' improved literacy and understanding of the subject. The account presented in this article of the author's growing interest in mathematical literacy specifically involves mathematical reading. This shift in interest began with a six-week…

What happens when middle and high school teachers who know their content very well are told they should be teaching reading and writing too? Is there a bit of resistance? A decrease in self-efficacy? An overturning of curricula? In "Disciplinary Literacy in Action," ReLeah Cossett Lent and Marsha Voigt show us a better way. In this…

Making inferences during reading is a critical standards-based skill and is important for reading comprehension. This article supports the improvement of reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities (LD) in upper elementary grades by reviewing what is currently known about inference instruction for students with LD and providing…

This engaging partner-reading activity provides students with an opportunity to improve their reading comprehension and text-based discussion skills. The activity, which can be used with intermediate and advanced learners, is ideal for English language learners in content classes and is particularly useful for building foundational knowledge of a…