In 2019, the Alabama Legislature passed the Alabama Literacy Act to improve the reading proficiency of public school kindergarten to third grade students and ensure that those students are able to read at or above grade level by the end of third grade. This legislation established and funded regional and local literacy coaches to provide targeted…

To cultivate the acceptance of the co-teaching model among preservice teachers, two of the education faculty at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, have incorporated co-teaching in several field-based literacy courses. Alongside experiencing co-teaching from their professors, preservice teachers are also provided with the opportunity to practice…

Middle Grades teacher candidates participated in a "field trip" in an Integrated Reading course to model best practices in culturally responsive teaching. The college students visited their downtown city including a regional art museum and memorial sculpture garden commemorating local Black history to experience and contemplate…

Educators often lack the proper tools and time to teach each child to read fluently, which requires distinct and interrelated word recognition and language comprehension processes. The lack of reading proficiency strongly correlates to academic struggles throughout elementary school and beyond, creating academic performance gaps between readers…

This article provides a commentary within the special issue, Integration: The Keystone of Comprehension. According to most contemporary frameworks, a driving force in comprehension is the reader's ability to generate the links among the words and sentences (ideas) in the texts and between the ideas in the text and what the readers already know. As…

Memorizing spelling lists and looking up words in the dictionary and then using the words in a sentence is a traditional strategy used for vocabulary acquisition. However, because the students do not learn words in context, their application of knowledge and understanding from this method is uneven. Because picture books may be used for pleasure…

The importance of contextualization within postsecondary contexts has been embraced by the state of Texas, as shown by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's (THECB) Accelerate Texas Initiative (THECB, n.d.). Contextualization, in short, is the teaching and development of basic skills and knowledge within a specific disciplinary topic…

Several strategies that demonstrate promise are available for educators to improve reading comprehension outcomes for students. However, some students, including students with and at risk for learning disabilities, require more intensive supports to develop proficiency in reading comprehension. To support these students, teachers must intensify…

The simple view of reading is commonly presented to educators in professional development about the science of reading. The simple view is a useful tool for conveying the undeniable importance--in fact, the necessity--of both decoding and linguistic comprehension for reading. Research in the 35 years since the theory was proposed has revealed…

This tool is designed to assist college instructors in building pre-service teachers' knowledge of evidence-based strategies for helping students in kindergarten through grade 3 acquire the language and literacy skills to succeed academically. This tool is intended for use in conjunction with the "Foundational Skills to Support Reading for…

When the pandemic forced schools across the country to close their doors in March 2020, many district and school leaders worked quickly to plan for and address students' "unfinished learning." How would they support students who had been exposed to content, but had not yet had a chance to master it? Research supports two ways schools can…

Despite abundant research on effective reading instruction, many teachers struggle to meet the diverse needs of their students, particularly those with dyslexia. Even though reading is an essential skill for academic success, according to the 2019 "Nation's Report Card" published by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP),…

Recent research on scaffolding has examined both the sources of information used and neglected during students' word-solving attempts and the amount of information provided in teachers' word-solving prompts. In this teaching tip, the authors expand the application of such research from one-to-one student-teacher interactions to a guided reading…

The category of nonfiction picture books has changed in the past few decades, putting more emphasis on engaging writing styles, attention to accuracy, and using synergic relations between images and texts. As a result of this shift, the strategies taught to students for reading nonfiction picture books must change. The author presents five…

The use of augmented reality (AR) in teaching English as a second language is examined in this article. Traditional language teaching techniques sometimes fall short of engaging students and offering real-world applications, which results in boredom and slow development. Through the use of augmented reality (AR) technology, digital content can be…