In this study, we used a randomized design to investigate the effects of an enriched reading program on 226 urban elementary students' (third through sixth grade) reading comprehension, oral reading fluency, and attitude toward reading in 2 elementary schools. The Schoolwide Enrichment Model in Reading Framework (SEM-R) provides enriched reading…

The report summarizes relevant high-quality research studies and synthesizes their findings to determine the relative effectiveness of interventions for struggling early readers. Additionally, the authors outline the implications of these findings for practice. Specific suggestions for implementing the findings are discussed in detail beginning on…

Through basic literacy experiences like discussing, reading, writing, viewing, and listening, students become aware of themselves as readers, increase reading abilities, and demonstrate an overall understanding of "just right" books in an environment very different from the usual activity-filled elementary classroom. Amazingly, because of basic…

When a child has an extensive knowledge of vocabulary, it is most likely from extensive reading, regardless of whether the reading is from comic books, magazines, or a recommended reading literature list. Teachers who are always trying to find the best strategies for teaching literacy skills such as reading comprehension, vocabulary development,…

The goals of this study were to (a) develop an empirically based model regarding the development of fluent and automatic reading in the early elementary school years and (b) determine whether fluent text-reading skills provided benefits for reading comprehension beyond those accounted for by fluent word decoding. First-, second-, and third-grade…

Out-of-school programs provide a context for enriching academic experiences. This study describes a 12-week after-school reading program, Project Expanding Horizons, which is based on the Schoolwide Enrichment Model-Reading (SEM-R) framework. SEM-R has three phases: exposure, supported independent reading, and choice. The exposure phase is…

Due in part to conflicting opinions and research results, the practice of sustained silent reading (SSR) in schools has been questioned. After a frustrating experience with SSR, the author of this article began a data-driven decision-making process to gain new insights on how to structure silent reading in a classroom, including a comparison…

A deep, developmental construct and definition of fluency, in which fluency and reading comprehension have a reciprocal relationship, is explicated and contrasted with superficial approaches to that construct. The historical development of fluency is outlined, along with conclusions of the U.S. National Reading Panel, to explore why fluency has…

A primary responsibility of elementary schools is to help children become independent readers. Once children have started decoding, teachers work hard to make sure that students have access to "just right" books--books that they can read with fluency, good understanding and at least 95% accuracy. Effective teachers support students by offering…

Over the past four years, educators and researchers from the University of Connecticut have worked with urban high-poverty schools to implement an alternative reading instruction program called the Schoolwide Enrichment Model in Reading (SEM-R). Based on Renzulli's Enrichment Triad Model, the SEM-R works through planned enrichment experiences to…

Filling a crucial gap in the literature, this immensely practical volume presents innovative tools for helping K-3 students significantly increase their ability to make meaning from texts. The focus is on teaching the comprehension processes employed by expert readers, using a carefully sequenced combination of whole-class activities, specially…

This article presents a model of comprehension to support classroom teachers as they engage their students in making meaning from text. Four areas contribute to the comprehension process: the reader, the context, the text, and the transaction, which is described as the intersection of the reader and text situated within a specific context. This…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a home repeated-reading intervention on the reading achievement of eight low-performing second-grade children in an urban school by taking into consideration their need to develop automaticity and the role their parents play in this process. Specifically we posed the following…

Share's "self-teaching" model proposes that readers acquire most knowledge about the orthographic structure of words incidentally while reading independently. In the current study, the self-teaching hypothesis was tested by simulating everyday reading through the use of real words, analyzing the effects of context, and considering the independent…

The three books reviewed in this article represent the continuous effort to make visible the significant bridge between theory and practice in the fields of literacy and children's literature. While the authors maintain distinct purposes for their creations, the texts each speak to a strong theoretical support for the practices they describe. The…