The elementary grades provide a rich context for literacy and science learning. Reading, writing, and talk support students' conceptual understanding of and engagement with science. The authors provide theoretical and research evidence to support the teaching of five instructional strategies that can facilitate literacy and science learning in…

Historically, reforms designed to transform teaching from rote, teacher-centered instruction to progressive student-centered instruction have had varied levels of success. Plentiful research juxtaposes teachers' enacted instruction with the instructional ideals of reform efforts to determine the extent to which teachers' instruction aligns with…

This study examines third, fourth, and fifth grade students' reasoning that was captured as they engaged collaboratively in a teacher designed inquiry task. This task focused on choosing eco-friendly toys for a fictitious local toy store. Results indicated that students were more expressive with reasoning when they shared their ideas orally, but…

Content area reading comprehension and writing have been a challenge for children in the U.S. schools for many years as evidenced by state and national assessments. One promising solution to the problem is text structure based instruction that promotes strategic selection, encoding, retrieval, and use of information for myriads of activities…

Students in Ginger Berninger's research studies "showed significant improvement in their reading and writing" after using these lessons--now available to teachers for the first time ever in one convenient book! A state-of-the-art set of lesson plans that can be used for differentiated instruction of students with dysgraphia, dyslexia, and OWL LD,…

This study examined (a) the effects of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) on student use of critical thinking skills (CTS) in written responses to district reading assessments, (b) if practiced oral responses affected the ability to respond critically using written language, (c) whether there was a relationship between the development of the CTS of…

This report offers a number of specific teaching techniques that research suggests will help 4th- to 12th-grade students in this nation's schools. The report focuses on all students, not just those who display writing difficulties, although this latter group is deservedly the focus of much attention. The premise of this report is that all students…