Two-thirds of U.S. high school students today are unable to read and comprehend complex academic materials, think critically about texts, synthesize information from multiple sources, or effectively communicate what they have learned. And in response, many teachers simply stop assigning challenging texts, opting instead to "deliver…

Nationally, student proficiency in reading and writing is very low and requires ongoing focus from state and local agencies. With almost 25% of occupational therapists working in early intervention and school settings (AOTA, 2015), their role of facilitating literacy (e.g., reading, writing, speaking and listening) is critical. Occupational…

The ability to ask questions is essential to learning, reasoning, and understanding. This column introduces a sequence of activities that incorporate the use of digital images and online texts into intentional opportunities for even the youngest learners to work with their teachers and classmates as they wonder, anticipate, explore, and think…

The current trend in postsecondary literacy is to offer developmental reading and writing coursework in an integrated, (and in most cases) accelerated, format. This move toward integration and acceleration is definitely in line with the research literature; however, many of these new courses do not reflect the curricular and pedagogical reforms…

Effective teachers are continuously striving to improve their instruction. Reading Recovery teachers have detailed and specific literacy training and expertise that can be of great value to classroom teachers, especially in the area of guided reading instruction. This article explores the ways in which key Reading Recovery strategies can be…

In the past 2 decades, researchers (often working closely with parents, teachers, and other school staff members) have conducted studies that have substantially increased understanding how to effectively teach children and adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) to read. This research focus has been fueled by increased societal expectations…

When Debbie Miller, educational consultant and author of "Reading with Meaning" (2013) and "Teaching with Intention" (2008) visited a Title I elementary school in Texas, the instructional reading coach was challenged in her thinking about best practices for independent reading. Ms. Miller's visit included modeling interactive…

This article tells the story of a group of seventh grade teachers and administrators in one Los Angeles middle school who have grappled for years with the poor reading skills of their middle school students. Discouraged by the reading scores on standardized tests and frustrated with the limits of their readers, this group struggled to improve…

More than twenty years ago reading researchers sought to capture the behaviors good readers demonstrated to make meaning from their reading. By shifting the focus away from what was wrong, researchers were able to study and discuss what worked. A comprehensive list of reading strategies emerged from this research. This was an important discovery.…

In this, the first article in the "American Annals of the Deaf" special issue on English reading development for individuals who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing, the coeditors aim to promote interdisciplinary dialogue among researchers regarding literacy research with d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) students by setting the tone for an…

In recent years, the advent of low-cost digital and mobile devices has led to a strong expansion of social interventions, including those that try to improve student learning and literacy outcomes. Many of these are focused on improving reading in low-income countries, and particularly among the most disadvantaged. Some of these early efforts have…

Traditionally, school librarians have had two main strategies for impacting the literacy development of students in their schools. One way is through reading promotion efforts: book talks, book displays, or online book trailers, and literacy events such as book fairs, contests, and reading incentive programs. The other way has been through…

The process of learning to read is difficult for many children, and this is especially true for students with learning disabilities (LD). Reading in English becomes even more difficult when a student's home language is not English. For English language learner (ELL) students with LD, acquiring the necessary skills to read fluently is an even…

The paper shows the importance of Storybird, an online platform, for developing writing and storytelling among young learners of a foreign language. Storybird is an extremely engaging collaborative storywriting website that embodies three ideas--creating, reading, and sharing. It is also a collaborative storytelling tool that allows students to…

In this article, the authors propose four principles to guide teachers' thinking as they use technology to support teaching and literacy learning in 21st century classrooms. Specifically, teachers must be aware of emerging technologies, recognize the complexities of new literacies, realize tech-savvy students may not be skilled readers and writers…