Strategy based reading instruction helps teachers differentiate the teaching of reading. It also supports many types of readers by explicitly teaching and modeling reading comprehension strategies. The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of strategy based reading instruction for improving student reading comprehension. …

Although students today will need to rely on text more than in the past, American students are struggling to read and comprehend text. Research has supported the ability of content area reading strategies (CARS) to increase students' ability to read and comprehend text. The purpose of this research was to assess agriscience educators'…

The theme for the 60th annual conference of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) was Literacy: The Critical Role of Teacher Knowledge. This Yearbook provides a snapshot of the highlights of the meeting and sampling of some of the proceedings. The focus is on three questions surrounding the conference theme: (1) What do…

Children start asking questions as soon as they speak their first sentences. And they continue to ask them at home and in the classroom if adults let them. Mosaic of Thought (Keene and Zimmermann 2007) has provided the author with a "field guide" to both her son's questions at home and her second-grade students' questions in the classroom. Keene…

Identities are constructed throughout people's lives. In this paper, I explored the emerging reading identities of 10 adults who were pursuing GED (General Educational Development) credentials. While part of a much larger study that included many data sources, this paper draws on interview data to examine how one group of adults positioned…

This newsletter, published five times a year, features articles on issues of concern to adult, family, and youth literacy practitioners, as well as recommended resources, announcements, and teaching strategies. This issue contains: (1) Using a License to Drive Improvement: Professional Development in Massachusetts (Jon Steinberg); (2) Building…

This dissertation examined the application of evidence-based tutoring for oral reading fluency (ORF) to a natural setting, using teachers as parent trainers. Measures used to determine the impact of parent tutoring included treatment integrity, student reading outcomes, attitudes towards involvement and reading, and social validity. Six teachers…

We obtained data from 124 volunteer instructors in adult literacy, using an instrument developed to assess what the volunteers knew about providing reading instruction to adults. Results showed that volunteers with bachelor's degrees or higher and those who had teacher's certificates were significantly more knowledgeable about providing reading…

Literacy expectations for persons with cognitive impairments, including impairments caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI), have remained quite low. Some researchers have suggested that educators move from a focus on teaching functional skills to teaching basic reading skills in a manner similar to instruction for nondisabled learners. The purpose…

This article reports on a study that examined the choice and use of academic reading strategies of adult learners who were identified as proficient and less proficient readers. The major objective was to explore the potential influence of their adult characteristics on their use of their academic reading strategies. Data were gathered using…

Recent reading research has shown teachers how to help students comprehend and has identified strategies that good comprehenders use. At the same time, however, researchers report that few if any of these techniques are used in classrooms. Reading teachers and content area teachers alike need to be able to design lessons that help students…

An easily-implemented instructional innovation that improved reading comprehension for students including striving readers, average readers, and advanced readers is described in this article. START (Students and Teachers Actively Reading Text) was developed to improve reading comprehension instruction and achievement. This innovative instructional…

The progress and effects of a collaborative study group as a method of job-embedded professional development were studied. Eight high school teachers representing a variety of disciplines and the author (a literacy specialist) met monthly as a collaborative group for one school year to investigate materials and methods for literacy strategy…

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…

This study presents the results of a national survey of 1500 K-2 teachers describing understandings and practices related to guided reading. Results focused on five questions: What is the purpose of guided reading groups? What grouping techniques should be used? What texts should be used? How is instruction planned with and away from the teacher?…