"Reading Edge" is a middle school literacy program that emphasizes cooperative learning, goal setting, feedback, classroom management techniques, and the use of metacognitive strategy, whereby students assess their own skills and learn to apply new ones. The program is a component of the "Success for All"[superscript 2]…

The study explored the different influences of roots and suffixes in reading aloud morphemic pseudowords (e.g., vetr-ezza, "glass-ness"). Previous work on adults showed a facilitating effect of both roots and suffixes on naming times. In the present study, pseudoword stimuli including roots and suffixes in different combinations were…

The study of "Thinking Reader"[R] is a multisite cluster randomized controlled trial. Ninety-two reading/English language arts teachers from 32 elementary and middle schools were randomly assigned within their schools to either the "Thinking Reader"[R] condition or the comparison condition. The analysis sample consisted of 90…

This study examined the connection between middle school students' beliefs about reading and their use of comprehension strategies during a collaborative reading activity. Seventy-one fifth- and sixth-grade students were videotaped while they worked in small groups to read and discuss short texts describing the reading habits and abilities of four…

Despite recent calls for border crossing between reading and science, few studies have examined the impact of reading infusion in the science curriculum on students' science literacy. In this quasi-experimental study, the authors investigated the effects of an inquiry-based science curriculum that integrated explicit reading strategy instruction…

This study examines unintended consequences during a 6th-grade book club discussion of Bette Bao Lord's (1984) In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. The participants modeled a book club discussion, otherwise known as the fish bowl, for a newly enrolled student. Unintended consequences occurred within the realm of deviating from the rules of…

This study investigates relationships among adolescent students' perceived use of academic reading strategies and reading achievement, age, and gender. Good readers reported using global and problem-solving strategies to a greater extent than poor readers. Surface-level problem-solving strategies were more strongly related to higher reading…

According to a 2010 report by ACT, "Only 31 percent of students are performing at a college-and-career reading level with respect to successfully understanding complex text" (p. 5). This statistic demonstrates what educators know: Middle and high school students face numerous challenges in reading, understanding, connecting to, and…

Sound symbolism is the notion that there is a subset of words in the world's languages for which sounds and their symbols have some degree of correspondence. Two studies assessed 5th and 6th graders' knowledge of word meanings for English sound symbolic and non-sound symbolic words. Both studies found that the meanings of sound symbolic words were…

Middle school science teachers report using textbooks regularly although these textbooks have been criticized for not following standards-based principles for concept learning, and student reading achievement has been stagnant for 20 years. Effective strategic reading instruction has been documented for middle school students but few teachers use…

Developmental stages in reading English words were examined among 118 Chinese children in Grades 2, 4, and 6 from a working-class elementary school in Tianjin, China. Proficiency in Chinese and English, ability to make orthographic analogies in both languages, and strategies in reading English words were assessed. Results suggest that Chinese…

Explores the unique reading strategies needed for the World Wide Web. Considers additions needed in the repertoire of teaching reading strategies when computers are the medium. Argues that Internet technology has had a significant impact upon reading strategies, resulting in a need to reshape thinking about classroom reading practices. (SG)

This study investigated how two readers of Mandarin with differing reading-proficiency skills interacted with a narrative passage, as well as what knowledge they brought to and made use of while reading the text. The perspectives of reading comprehension, transactional theory and social-cognitive models of reading served as this study's…

Teaching reading strategies and guiding students towards self-regulated reading routines are promising approaches to fostering reading comprehension in students with learning disabilities. The aim of this study was to evaluate in a sample of 73 fifth to eighth graders with learning disabilities (IQ higher than 85 and reading skills below…

A study examined the effect of Direct Instruction (DI) on the reading achievement of sixth graders. Subjects were 72 Chicago Public School students, nearly 100% minority. In the school year of 1994-95 no students received DI. A sample of 30 students who performed poorly, with stanines of 1, 2, and 3 on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) were…