Complexity of the various needs that come with English language learners (ELLs) beyond language learning (such as learning gaps, social and cultural differences, etc.) and increased numbers of English language learners in Canadian schools have led educational stakeholders to seek ways to promote reading improvement. While literature points out the…

This study investigated the effect of cloze item practice on reading comprehension, where cloze items were either created by humans, by machine using natural language processing techniques, or randomly. Participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 302) took a pre-test, read a text, and took part in one of five conditions, Do-Nothing, Re-Read,…

Teachers in inclusive classrooms are challenged to provide reading instruction for students with a wide range of instructional levels. This article reports on the implementation of guided reading in four middle years inclusive classrooms, the impact on student engagement and reading progress, and teacher perspectives on the guided reading…

This article describes a collaborative research study of university researchers and Grades one and two teachers from an Ontario, Canada French-language School Board. The School Board offered phonological awareness and reading-teaching training to grades one and two teachers with a long-term goal of improving the reading outcomes of the students in…

Designed to reinforce initial training and to provide a collection of useful ideas for students who serve as peer tutors, this guidebook provides tips for tutors to improve the reading abilities. Following an introduction which asserts the benefits of peer tutoring programs, the guidebook is divided into two major sections: "Tutoring…

Five points are: (1) don't assume students know how to use their textbooks; (2) don't ignore the problem or take only short term measures for improvement; (3) don't give undirected assignments; (4) don't force students to pronounce every word correctly; (5) don't send students to the dictionary for words they don't know. (Author/JK)

A diverse group of 27 adults completed 100 hours of computer-assisted reading instruction. Reading gains ranged from 0.4-7.5 grade levels and were greatest for subjects with a minimum pretest second grade reading level. Participants indicated the importance of skilled and empathic support from staff. (SV)

This evaluative report provides information about a remedial reading program in a Canadian school district. Various sections of the report deal with the following areas: the purpose of the evaluation project; procedures and sample; major findings according to remedial reading teachers, two groups of taxpayers, remedial reading pupils, and…

A study hypothesized that if prediction, clarification, question-generation, and summarization strategies were taught using scaffolded instruction, then poor comprehenders might be able to learn the strategies so that they could apply them to text on their own and thereby improve their performance on standardized comprehension measures. Subjects…

Based on recent reading research, this secondary school developmental reading curriculum guide presents a reading program to help developmental students acquire strategies to begin independent reading of a variety of print materials and for a range of purposes. The introductory section of the guide presents a rationale and a declaration of…

A cross-age tutoring program--using a highly structured tutoring method, an administrative reporting system, and home based reinforcement--was implemented and evaluated in six Ontario, Canada, schools. The subjects were 50 students with reading scores at least six months below grade level. These students were placed either in an experimental group…

In this action research project, undertaken in a Grade 2/3 classroom, I posed the question: How can I encourage the readers in my class to become reflective and critical thinkers as they read? My aim was to support students in becoming reflective about what they read as well as about the strategies they used while reading, and to support the…

A study in eastern Ontario, Canada, evaluated a computer program, the Autoskill Component Reading Subskills Program, which was used to improve the reading comprehension of elementary school students identified as reading disabled. Subjects, 91 students from five school districts, were behind at least one grade in reading word recognition skills…

Four field tests of Canadian software show that computerized interactive fiction teaches both history and independent reading/study skills. (ARH)