Running Records provide a standardized method for recording and assessing students' oral reading behaviors and are excellent formative assessment tools to guide instructional decision-making. This study expands on prior Running Record reliability work by evaluating the extent to which external raters and teachers consistently assessed students'…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine the effects of a tutorial program on first-grade children's reading skills and their tutors' (also preservice teachers) knowledge of reading instruction. Participants consisted of a group of 30 first-grade children served in the program and a control group of 30 children. Literacy…

Current reading research largely focuses on word reading. This study complements that focus by considering what children do when encountering unknown words and how that problem-solving changes over time. We used overlapping wave theory to describe how children who were having difficulty with reading changed their word-solving actions across nine…

In 2010, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted by most states in the US. The authors of these standards called for a shift from previous standards by recommending that young children experience a 50-50 balance between informational and literary reading. For this mixed-methods study, researchers examined the contents of 23 first-grade…

This research aims to evaluate the predicting role of executive functions, specially inhibition and flexibility, in reading comprehension. Participants were evaluated with inhibition and flexibility measures in first- grade, and later in third- grade their reading comprehension, oral and silent reading fluency, as well as their decoding skills…

One potential contributor to student achievement that has garnered recent attention is students' mindset. A recent review of the literature on the effect of a growth mindset intervention on students' academic achievement has shown small effects, but limited research has been conducted with young students. This study investigated whether students…

Common Core State Standards emphasize the importance of informational writing in primary grades. In such writing, importance is placed on the writing being scholarly and scientific. However, such writing can be rote and dry, with little voice. The purpose of this article was to propose a working definition of voice in science writing for first…

This study examined the impact of the lexical distance (spoken, modern standard Arabic-MSA, shared, and pseudo-words) on phonological awareness (PA) and naming speed (RAN). The data from this longitudinal study were obtained from 261 native Arabic-speaking kindergarteners, which were then followed to first grade. The data revealed a significant…

This mixed methods study explored the relationship between what beginning readers say about their thought processes for self-monitoring their reading and their ability to self-correct. Using Epistemic Network Analysis to visually map the metacognitive processes first-graders reported, results indicate a statistically significant difference (p…

Teachers can use expository texts to teach academic vocabulary, content knowledge, text structure, and text features. National associations' recommended book lists are often used to identify books for classrooms. Previously we identified expository texts on these lists from 2001-2002 and 2011-2012. The current study explored instructional…

There have been recent calls to support student agency in the field of literacy. Agency, which we define in the context of schooling, is a multidimensional construct where individuals exert influence and create opportunities in the learning context through intentions, decisions, and actions. We propose highlighting agency as an interconnected…

The purpose of this study was to explore reading rates in informational text for children in the primary grades (1-3) by analyzing a large, preexisting statewide dataset (n = 21,005). The results indicated that children in the primary grades read informational text at approximately two-thirds the rates that would be anticipated based on previous…

The purpose of this study was to determine if first-grade English Learners made patterns of language related errors when reading, and if so, to identify those patterns and how teachers coded language related errors when analyzing English Learners' running records. Using research from the fields of both literacy and Second Language Acquisition, we…

Becoming a fluent reader has been established as important to reading comprehension. Prosody (expression) is an indicator of fluent reading that is linked to improved comprehension in students across elementary, middle, and secondary grades. Fluent reading is most often evaluated by classroom teachers through the use of a rubric, with the most…

The Matthew effects suggest that children who struggle when learning to read are less likely to read for pleasure later in life compared to children who ease into reading quickly. One aspect of early literacy instruction that might hamper reading progress is learning to read simultaneously in two languages. Despite the long-lasting and widespread…