Teachers can help minority children close the academic achievement gap in intermediate and middle school by combining literacy instruction and content-area material. This connection improves reading achievement and increases curriculum knowledge, even if students have previously experienced difficulty with primary school reading. Fortunately,…

This case study examined the experiences of two middle level teachers as they worked with a literacy coach and university partners in an instructional improvement initiative. Robert and Janice worked together as a two-teacher team. Across the three years of the study, they collaborated with Melissa, the literacy coach, to integrate reading and…

The Louisiana Striving Readers evaluation assessed the implementation and effectiveness of the Voyager "Passport Reading Journeys" (PRJ), a widely used supplemental literacy intervention for struggling adolescent readers that reflects the research-based practices recommended by the National Reading Panel (2000) and other more recent…

In every content area, standardized tests are strongly focused on reading. Today, not only are reading and writing expected to take place in the English/language arts classroom but also in math, science, and social studies. To prepare students for standardized tests in the middle grades and beyond, the U. S. Department of Education recommends…

The definition of "English language classroom" is changing. When students have the opportunity to learn content and language at the same time, disciplinary boundaries overlap. Teachers are rethinking how they design courses, plan lessons, assess students, and collaborate with colleagues to support student learning and facilitate their…

With the research of the relationship between inter-culture and language teaching development, people are well aware of the necessity of integrating inter-culture into language teaching. While providing the opportunity for the students to improve their intercultural communication competence, here, the research presented on the integration of…

Teachers' work is changing rapidly worldwide but is rarely a topic of sustained focus in the literature on teaching English as an additional language. Despite this lack of robust scholarly attention, ESL, bilingual, and content specialists working in primary, secondary, and tertiary contexts contend with the demands of changing demographics and…

Teachers who plan content area instruction with evidence-based principles of reading engagement in mind will seek ways of making learning interesting and worthwhile; will create learning contexts that maximize participation in reading, writing, and thinking; and will always account for motivation and engagement when considering students' classroom…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relative effects of the single-focus interventions (vocabulary and comprehension) and the streamlined multi-component model. The program of research included a development and pilot phase, an initial experimental study and a follow-up study to further refine and test the model. Results presented here…

Agriscience is facing pressure to document and contribute to student achievement in math, science, and reading. Agriscience teachers may be able to foster student reading and comprehension through utilization of research-based reading strategies to further develop literacy in and about agriculture. Building on Dunkin and Biddle's (1974) model of…

This article describes ways that physical educators and librarians can team up to improve student learning in both content areas. The authors worked together at Trevilians Elementary School in Louisa County, Virginia for nine years. The suggestions included in this article are based on techniques they used and on the contents of a typical…

Reading in content areas is generally difficult for English-language learners (ELLs), but reading in social studies is particularly challenging for ELLs for several reasons. First, ELLs often lack background information that textbook authors assume readers have. Second, ELLs in the process of learning a new language do not have…

"Children's Choices," a project of a joint committee supported by the International Reading Association (IRA) and the Children's Book Council, is published annually in "The Reading Teacher." Books recommended by children are grouped by levels: Beginning Reader (ages 5-7); Young Readers (ages 8-10); and Advanced Readers (ages…

This article focuses on the use of questioning strategies to promote comprehension of informational texts. It proposes that if students gain personally effective questioning strategies for comprehending informational text and a sense of self-efficacy in using these strategies independently, before they enter middle and secondary grades, their…

This annual newsletter contains updates on the latest CCRC research, new publications and details of upcoming presentations at major conferences. The feature article in this issue, "Addressing the Needs of Underprepared Students," by Thomas Bailey, summarizes the discussion found in the paper "Challenge and Opportunity: Rethinking…