Current conversations in literacy research call for the need to consider children's social-emotional development and academic learning in an integrated way that honors and supports the whole child in their cultural context. Here we review available literatures on the cognitive, linguistic, affective, social and cultural dimensions of typical and…

Research shows that cognitively demanding text-based writing assignments increase students' reading comprehension skills and analytic writing competencies. In this article, we describe the steps that upper-elementary grade teachers can take to develop cognitively demanding assignments that build these higher-level literacy skills and put students…

Dismissed as "brainless" at school, Alan Markland's one saving grace was his ability to read. It grew into a passion for books and reading which survived years of alcoholism and eventual homelessness. He was in his sixties when he began to realise his true vocation as a writer. Markland describes his early education as "perfunctory." An early…

In recent decades, the science of reading acquisition, processes, and individual differences in general and special populations has been continuously advancing through interdisciplinary research in cognitive, psycholinguistic, developmental, genetic, neuroscience, cross-language studies, and experimental comparison studies of effective…

Technology integration into language arts instruction has been slow and tentative, even as information technologies have evolved with frightening speed. Today's teachers need to be aware of several extant and unchanging realities: Technology is now indispensable to literacy development; reading with technology requires new skills and…

Thomas et al. have defined transliteracy as "the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks" (Transliteracy Research Group). The learner who is transliterate builds knowledge, communicates, and interacts across…

"Reading maturity" is a construct that looks broadly at reading development encompassing not only basic reading skills but reading habits, attitudes, and dispositions. It has a rich history and this article calls for a need to make reading maturity a necessary part of the literacy curriculum. It offers a working description and reviews…

Examining deficits in the development of adolescent literacy, this article explores conceptions of literacy not as a "simple" exercise that merely requires layperson understandings of words, but rather, as research shows, as a deeper action that requires disciplinary knowledge and standing. Vygotsky's distinction between tool users vs.…

Today's media specialist can and should become an integral part of the school's efforts to improve student reading and test scores. A media specialist can have an influence on student reading in many ways. One should always remember that the ultimate goal of media specialists is to develop in their students a love of reading as a pleasurable…

The role of literacy instruction--and more specifically the ability to read critically--in democratic and Social Studies education has not been fully or explicitly explored. This gap is also strikingly evident in the reluctance of many Social Studies teachers to incorporate reading instruction into their practice. In this paper we describe our…

When students enter middle school, they are confronted with the necessity of learning from complex content-area textbooks. Many students find these texts boring, and they may lack the higher-order reading comprehension skills they need to tackle complex text. Yet the ability to read informational text is essential to success in middle school and…

Career and technical education (CTE) is emerging as a reading content area similar to other academic areas such as social studies, math and science. The primary reason for this is that CTE is more integrated with academic subjects. This trend is prompting CTE teachers to become more active in supporting their students' reading through their CTE…

Two hundred years ago, literacy meant being able to read and write. Today people find themselves with many literacies in a nation that is considered ninety-nine percent literate. The plethora of literacies has just given birth to another term--transliteracy. Transliteracy is the ability to read, listen to, view, understand, synthesize, and apply…

Wordless books offer a bounty of riches. The format is accessible to everyone regardless of language or reading ability, making the books ideal for use in international settings, classes with nonnative speakers, or families with adults or children who are struggling or emergent readers. They enrich the aesthetic lives and literacy skills of…

This article discusses the open-content movement in education. A small but growing movement of K-12 educators is latching on to educational resources that are "open," or free for others to use, change, and republish on web sites that promote sharing. The open-content movement is fueled partly by digital creation tools that make it easy…