Reading and music instruction can form a symbiotic relationship to positively impact lower-elementary literacy and increase student engagement. In this action research study, cross-curricular instruction between reading and music at the 2nd grade elementary level was taught by both the reading and music teacher. This study employed reading,…

This article discusses findings from the qualitative research study which was conducted at a K-12 parochial school in Midwestern city. The study was conducted to understand how first and second graders who were located in one particular educational setting, with reading levels that ranged from low to high in a split classroom, made meanings from…

Early literacy learning in the primary grades creates the foundation of reading skills that determines the achievement for later literacy learning. The problem addressed was that the reading achievement of fourth-grade students in the United States of America has been decreasing since 2017. Early literacy learning requires effective instructional…

Despite recent calls to more fully incorporate multimodal perspectives into literacies research, there is still limited scholarship examining how students critically engage in reading activities by drawing on embodied practices. Racially and linguistically minoritized students are particularly disadvantaged by dominant logocentric and…

Teachers play a large role in determining whether or not the classroom climate experienced by students is positive, especially through their visible emotional behaviors (i.e., neutral, positive, and negative emotional expressions). Research suggests that teachers make specific contributions to the classroom emotional climate in actions such as…

In current multi-tier models, students who are not responsive to universal instruction receive supplementary support. Despite most students having co-occurring academic and behavior challenges, their needs are often addressed through separate academic or behavior interventions. This approach may not only be costly for schools, but it also fails to…

Behavior and academic outcomes in school are interrelated; students who struggle with academics are likelier to exhibit troublesome behavior and students who struggle with behavior tend to fall behind academically. Multitiered systems of support (MTSS) offer frameworks for providing increasingly intensive support for students with academic and…

In this article, the authors describe some recent research on Readers Theater in the elementary classroom that examined gender differences and achievement. In one particular study, boys who participated in Readers Theater significantly outperformed their peers in reading comprehension. Elementary school boys reported enjoying Readers Theater…

Highly effective elementary teachers faced challenges to professional development which differed from their urban or suburban peers. With the increasing need for student proficiency in reading, strategies to help grow their engagement and motivation were necessary to investigate and apply to instructional habits. The purpose of this basic…

The purpose of this article is to describe higher order talk and writing about text with seven and eight year old students. Much research has been conducted with intermediate and secondary students but less is known about higher order thinking with primary grade students. Participants in this study included all second and third grade teachers and…

There is an urgent need for more ethical and equitable approaches to reading instruction for young emergent bilingual children in English medium classrooms. Translanguaging pedagogies are one approach that may address this issue as they encourage emergent bilinguals to use all of their linguistic and semiotic resources during reading. This study…

In the past few decades, research has shown interactive read alouds to have enormous benefits for developing readers and should be included as an important component of reading instruction. Yet, many teachers do not utilize interactive read alouds in their literacy instruction. This is due in part to various curricular constraints and the…

Teachers may benefit from using classroom-delivered, low-intensity strategies to increase engagement of students at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders and academic failure in the general education classroom. This project focused on empowering teachers to be involved in every step of the research process: screening, planning, data…

Although little attention has been paid to primary-age children's reading motivation in comparison to older readers, one disturbing trend has been repeatedly observed: reading motivation generally declines across the early elementary years. Given that children's perceptions of school experiences shape motivation, and motivation impacts…

Students may engage in behavior during instruction that impacts the acquisition of skills. Intervening on student behavior using group contingencies may be more efficacious than other intervention methods. Directly programming for generalization of treatment effects may increase the durability of behavior change and further increase the efficacy…