During a study in a Kindergarten classroom, wordless and almost wordless picturebooks were presented as aesthetic objects that are read for pleasure, reward slow looking, and require engagement in significant semiotic work. Instruction about and adult mediation of picturebooks throughout the research communicated to the children that elements of…

In early childhood classrooms, increased pressures to prioritize literacy acquisition skills have shifted learning environments from more open-ended and exploratory to regulatory in nature particularly in the field of literacy. Despite that research suggests the important role of exploratory and agentic literacy practices, the field is…

Making inferences is essential to comprehending text. Teachers can ask inferential questions, model their thinking, and teach specific strategies to support upper elementary students in making inferences while reading.

Purpose: This study contributes to the science of teaching reading and vocabulary by illustrating how a ubiquitous classroom practice -- read alouds -- can be enhanced by structured supplements. This experimental study examines whether and to what extent providing structured supplements can improve student comprehension outcomes by helping…

This article revisits the legacy of Ken Goodman, specifically his work on African American Language and reading. In this body of scholarship, Goodman and like-minded scholars entered a fray of competing interests, political agendas, and economic stakes, which continue to plague current debates about the teaching of reading. To make sense of…

As more challenges occur to erase LGBTQ identities in the classroom, it is essential for educators to learn ways to become more inclusive. Using children's literature is a powerful way to include and center all identities. In this article, we share the journey and work of 1 s-grade teacher on a path to become more LGBTQ-inclusive with read-alouds.

Recently, school districts have relied on professional learning (PL) to help teachers adopt curricula and implement practices aligned with the science of reading and to help students recover from learning interruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Elementary English Language Arts teachers in Cecil County Public Schools are adopting Bookworms…

Research has demonstrated the positive effects of systematically teaching phonemic awareness and phonics in kindergarten and first grade, but many commonly used reading curricula do not adequately incorporate these foundational skills. In this study, we examined the efficacy of an instructional program ("UFLI Foundations") in…

More than two-thirds of middle school students do not read proficiently. Research has shown that targeted interventions using explicit instruction methods can improve reading outcomes for struggling readers. A central feature of explicit instruction is the systematic implementation of instructional interactions, but it is not clear what specific…

Reading fluency has been a tenacious problem in our schools. Studies have addressed the national decline in reading fluency in elementary schools. Tennessee's data outlines a similar pattern of findings. Approximately one third of Tennessee students complete third grade without becoming fluent readers (Tennessee Department of Education, 2023). New…

The fundamental significance of literacy achievement cannot be overstated. However, the 2022 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) divulges alarming findings, with a mere 33 percent of the nation's fourth graders performing at or above proficiency in reading (NAEP, 2022). Exploring the nexus of research-informed pedagogy and practice…

Proficiency in reading is an essential skill for achieving success in the modern era, and African American students have struggled with reading due to insufficient support during literacy instruction. Through the implementation of the Science of Reading™ course, this research aimed to examine the effect of the Language Essentials for Teachers of…

Syntactic knowledge, the implicit and explicit knowledge of syntax, is a necessary--but often overlooked--component of proficient reading (e.g., Deacon & Kieffer, 2018). Though some research exists on effective syntactic instruction, such as sentence combining (Neville & Searls, 1985; Wilkinson & Patty, 1993), researchers have called…

Teaching elementary students how to read is undeniably crucial, yet a substantial number of children encounter difficulties despite early interventions. Cross-age tutoring, a pedagogical approach that pairs older students with younger peers, emerges as a cost-effective solution that brings academic and social benefits to both the tutor and the…

Reading instruction for young Arabic speakers presents challenges for textbook publishers and teachers. In the present study, the authors conduct an analysis at the word level of four multidisciplinary textbooks for reading instruction in grades one and two in Egypt. The study sought to answer the following questions: What are the most common…