Reading and singing song lyrics utilizing karaoke-style performances provides ESL teachers with an effective English language acquisition teaching tool. Singing the lyrics of popular songs provides ESL students with multiple exposures to essential foundational oral and written English vocabulary and grammatical structures. This practice develops…

Drawing upon Franquiz & Salazar's (2004) humanizing pedagogy, this qualitative case study explored the perspectives of 22 school and community leaders in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Focus group narratives revealed that school teachers, administrators, and community leaders emphasized a culturally responsive approach to overcoming…

This study examined the predictive validity and classification accuracy of individual- and group-administered screening measures relative to student performance on a year-end state reading assessment in two states. A sample of 321 students was assessed in the areas of word-level and text fluency, as well as reading comprehension in the fall of…

This study examined the predictive validity and classification accuracy of individual and group-administered screening measures relative to student performance on a year-end state reading assessment in two states. A sample of 321 students were assessed in the areas of word-level and text fluency, as well as reading comprehension in the fall of…

Schools and districts are required to have all students become proficient readers by the end of 3rd grade in order to comply with the mandate of the No Child Left Behind Act. Therefore, schools need to ensure students make progress in literacy in kindergarten and 1st grade even though many students enter with little or no literacy background. The…

This qualitative research study explored second graders' use of visual information to understand characters in picturebooks. Students participated in whole class read-alouds of three picturebooks. Immediately following each read-aloud, students were individually interviewed and invited to talk about the visual text in pre-selected illustrations.…

The problem researched in this study is that many African American secondary students are not reading as proficient as their peers. In addition, parental involvement in secondary education is significantly less than during their elementary school years. The purpose of this qualitative, narrative phenomenological study was to explore parents' or…

This study evaluated Earobics Step 1, a commercial literacy program, and examined whether impact varied with children's school readiness and classroom instruction. Participants included 247 kindergarteners from 37 classrooms in nine Title 1 schools. Children were randomly assigned to receive 21 weeks of computerized instruction with Earobics or…

When browsing through professional catalogs or attending national conferences, one cannot help but notice the growing emphasis on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). So, what does this mean for Texas teachers? As part of a special four-part series in our Texas Journal of Literacy Education, a special task force from the TALE Board will share…

The integration of knowledge during reading was tested in 1,109 secondary school students. Reading times for the second sentence in a pair (Jane's headache went away) were compared in conditions where the first sentence was either causally or temporally related to the first sentence (Jane took an aspirin vs. Jane looked for an aspirin).…

We explore the potential of a computer-adaptive decoding game in Spanish to increase the decoding skills and oral reading fluency in Spanish and English of bilingual students. Participants were 78 first-grade Spanish-speaking students attending bilingual programs in five classrooms in Texas. Classrooms were randomly assigned to the treatment…

We explore the potential of a computer-adaptive decoding game in Spanish to increase the decoding skills and oral reading fluency in Spanish and English of bilingual students. Participants were 78 first-grade Spanish-speaking students attending bilingual programs in five classrooms in Texas. Classrooms were randomly assigned to the treatment…

This multiple baseline study investigated the effectiveness of text-based reading lessons for students with intellectual disability (ID). Three students were selected who had not responded well to explicit and systematic reading instruction. They were provided with individual instruction in daily 45-min sessions for 14 weeks (approximately 70…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has updated its 2009 intervention report for SuccessMaker®, a set of computer-based courses designed to supplement regular K-8 reading instruction. The program is designed to improve skills in areas such as concepts of print, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, grammar, and…

This comparative study examines relationships between phonemic awareness and Spanish reading skill acquisition among three groups of Spanish-speaking first and second graders: children in Mexico receiving reading instruction in Spanish and children in the United States receiving reading instruction in either Spanish or English. Children were…