The purpose of this study was to determine whether teaching students about the structure of a text would be associated with improved reading comprehension. Science texts were used with the intention of adding to what is known about content-area reading comprehension. To investigate the effects of teaching science text structure, a reading…

This article describes how preservice teachers (and one inservice teacher) gained content knowledge and pedagogical skills through reading a documentary novel, a genre that combines fictional storytelling with historical primary sources. Preservice teachers read the novel as a required text in a site-based undergraduate course focused on…

The STEM Literacy in the Classroom to Enable Societal Change project provided professional development for 24 mathematics, science, and science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics (STEM) teachers of grades 6-12. The project included a 2-week summer institute and one follow-up Saturday during the fall semester, for a total of 54 contact hours.…

The authors share design principles from a middle school social studies unit that explored questions of local history and engaged students in extended work with complex texts. The unit involved constructing a problem space for students to explore multiple historical texts. Within that problem space, students had opportunities to develop focal…

This study compares the effectiveness of context clue strategy instruction to wide reading practices in terms of their impact on the vocabulary knowledge of students who read at frustration level. The participants were 44 sixth-grade students from a middle grades school. Students were randomly assigned to experimental and control conditions. The…

Teachers value students' close reading of and text-based writing about diverse texts while eliciting their awareness of the world, privilege, and power. Carefully selected literature coupled with primary sources can bridge the classroom and society. To engage modern students in America's racialized past and present, this article guides teachers to…

Diane Relf was concerned by what felt like an unbridgeable gulf between Year 7's vocabulary and comprehension, and her aspirations both for their inclusion in history and their later academic success. As a subject leader without the benefit of any history-specific training at the start of her career, she embarked on a journey of intensive reading…

In this study, we examine evidence of transfer from reading instruction to students' learning of language arts and historical content as demonstrated by their independent writing and growth in background knowledge. We taught a unit in a sixth-grade language arts classroom in which students learned about design elements of graphic novels (e.g.,…

A major component of reading in subject areas is motivation to engage with text in different and specific ways. Yet, scant research captures fluctuations in adolescents' daily reading motivation in subject areas or across diverse reading activities: important information for supporting discipline-specific reading performance. Thus, this study…

It is essential that middle school content-area and special education co-teachers adopt evidence-based literacy practices that they can integrate into their content-area instruction to address the needs of all of the students in their classes. This article provides co-teachers with four planning tips to improve implementation of the practices they…

This article describes one aspect of an 2 year inquiry project (August 2016-July 2018) which brought together 18 experienced teachers from four Christchurch secondary schools as well as teachers in the University of Canterbury's transition programme (Student Transitions and Engagement) to collaborate and share ideas about discipline-specific…

Analytical reading and writing are embedded in a disciplinary approach to history instruction and present opportunities to extend students' literacy practices. U.S. educators and researchers have come to rely on the Document-Based Question (DBQ) to assess and develop students' historical knowledge and argument writing. However, this task has been…

The language of teaching and learning challenges Physical Sciences teachers and impacts learners' achievements. The study aimed to investigate how language literacy is integrated into the teaching of Physical Sciences. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The participants were five Grade 10 Physical Sciences teachers and 211 learners (108…

Designed to help instructional leaders deliver effective training to teachers, this guide provides one of four evidence-based recommendations for supporting literacy among English learner students in grades 4-8. It includes practical application ideas and examples, as well as resources for immediate implementation. This guide is based on…

We examined the influence of teachers' use of instructional time on students' learning within the context of a randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of a content-area reading comprehension intervention. Participants were 8th grade social studies teachers who had their classes randomly assigned to either Promoting Acceleration of…