The purpose of this study was to gauge the effects of offering LGBTQIA+ novels to students in an English Language Arts and Reading high school setting. Most novel options for students come from old books available in the school's book closet consisting of antiquated stories offering little in the way of diversity. Students are more likely to be…

There is currently an epidemic of high school readers who struggle; many are considered below-level readers, according to standardized tests, and they are not choosing to read for pleasure. The purpose of this case study was to evaluate whether a pedagogical framework called CRISP (choice, relevance, interest, success, and peer interactions) would…

Adolescence is often positioned as a particularly vulnerable period for reading motivation and engagement, both for academic reading and reading for pleasure. However, closer scrutiny of the literature reveals a much more nuanced pattern of changing interest, attitude, and motivation for reading during adolescence. Despite this, there is a…

This study examined the use of sequenced visual images (graphic novels and comic books) to scaffold incidental vocabulary learning and text comprehension while processing visual and textual information. Due to the recent growth of graphic novels as a popular text format, empirical investigation is needed to ascertain its value and to possibly…

This three-paper dissertation was conducted to explore how motivation and engagement, in addition to cognitive aspects, should be considered in disciplinary literacy instruction and assessment in high school classrooms. The studies, which were based on a five-year collaborative school-university partnership, were conducted to explore the relation…

This paper examined if difficulty in reading comprehension (PISA) is distinct from difficulty in reading fluency and if the distinct types of reading difficulties are differently associated with learning motivation, school burnout, and school enjoyment. The participants were 1324 Finnish ninth graders. Findings suggested that difficulties in…

This article describes findings related to changes in the reading motivation of 12th grade language arts students who participated in an online book club partnership with college students. The study investigated the motivational impact of self-selected young adult novels, social interaction with college students and peers, and the online context…

The authors examined the dimensions of reading engagement for rural ninth-grade students who participated in a supplemental literacy intervention for students who struggled with school-based reading. Using a comparative case study approach, researchers investigated the ways in which engagement was characterized and undermined within the context of…

In this article, we describe a model for reading engagement that emerged from interviews with high school students who participated in a yearlong supplemental intervention course. The course focused on motivation, strategies, content learning, and communication within the context of themed instruction. We sought to ascertain instructional factors,…

Linked text sets (LTS) offer a promising approach to bring together adolescent students and complex texts, such as those required by the Common Core State Standards, using strategic scaffolding. LTS include a variety of print and media texts that address a guiding question that is meaningful to students such as, "Why is growing up so…

Youth in middle and secondary grades, between childhood and the adult world, sometimes struggle with their identities as readers and learners. Too many describe themselves or are described by their teachers and parents as "reluctant, disengaged, and/or unmotivated" by classroom texts or by the rows of books in school libraries. Even…

By now we've all seen examples of Wordle, the technology app that converts chunks of text into a word cloud featuring words of different sizes according to their prevalence in the text. But you haven't seen the real power of Wordle until you've seen Lee Ann Spillane's high school students use it to analyze patterns and symbolism in The Great…

Could you use a superhero to teach reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem solving? While seeking the answer, secondary language arts teacher Maureen Bakis discovered a powerful pedagogy that teaches those skills and more. The amazingly successful results prompted her to write this practical guide that shows middle and high school…

As college and workplace success becomes increasingly dependent on reading, parents and educators have become more interested in how to engage students in reading. Teachers at a rural Georgia high school have reported that students are reluctant to engage in academic reading. Guided by previous research on the factors that promote or discourage…

This Striving Readers evaluation examined the impact of a targeted intervention for struggling adolescent readers in participating schools. This study was conducted in nine high schools in nine school districts serving large percentages of at-risk students in Kentucky. The targeted intervention for struggling readers was the Kentucky Cognitive…