This report summarizes the results of the Newark, New Jersey, Striving Readers program for project Years 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. This report updates one analysis (3 years); the remainder of the impacts and implementation findings are for Year 4. The Striving Readers Grant addresses the unmet needs of middle school students reading 2 or more years below…

"Accelerated Reader"[TM] is a guided reading intervention used to supplement regular reading instruction in K-12 classrooms. Its aim is to improve students' reading skills through reading practice and quizzes on the books students read. The "Accelerated Reader"[TM] program calls for students to select and read a book and then…

This study examined orthographic learning in oral and silent reading conditions. Dutch third graders read, either aloud or silently, short texts containing novel target (pseudo) words. The acquisition of new word-specific orthographic knowledge was assessed several days later by comparing target spellings with homophonic spellings in tasks…

The authors used a randomized design to investigate the effects of an enriched reading program, Schoolwide Enrichment Reading Model (SEM-R), with blocks of independent reading on oral reading fluency (ORF), reading comprehension, and attitudes toward reading for students in Grades 3-5. The authors used SEM-R in comparison with basal reading…

To explore whether different balances of fiction/non-fiction reading and challenge might help explain differences in reading achievement between genders, data on 45,670 pupils who independently read over 3 million books were analysed. Moderate (rather than high or low) levels of challenge were positively associated with achievement gain, but…

All students, including struggling readers, need opportunities to make choices in their reading. Schools should shun round-robin oral reading and basal readers, prioritize reading time, allocate resources for varied reading materials keyed to student interests, and develop better reading teachers, not better reading programs. (Contains 20…

Needs analysts have understood how needs change during a course [e.g. Richterich, R., & Chancerel, J. (1978). "Identifying the needs of adults learning a foreign language." Oxford: Pergamon]. They have also considered how learning needs should influence the way course content is delivered [Robinson, P. (1991). "ESP today: a…

Teachers who share children's literature with their classes in content areas also provide a rich curriculum in moral and ethical education. Embedded are values that promote democratic living and enhance children's moral education. This article discusses the ethics in fictional and biographical children's literature and offers strategies for…

Due in part to conflicting opinions and research results, the practice of sustained silent reading (SSR) in schools has been questioned. After a frustrating experience with SSR, the author of this article began a data-driven decision-making process to gain new insights on how to structure silent reading in a classroom, including a comparison…

A deep, developmental construct and definition of fluency, in which fluency and reading comprehension have a reciprocal relationship, is explicated and contrasted with superficial approaches to that construct. The historical development of fluency is outlined, along with conclusions of the U.S. National Reading Panel, to explore why fluency has…

Evaluates a computerized reading management and enrichment program's effects on college-bound ninth graders attending Cherryville Junior-Senior High School, in Gaston County, North Carolina. When total reading scores were compared on third-, sixth-, and eighth-grade California Achievement Tests, the Cherryville students (five-year program…

College students, enrolled in basic skills courses, sometimes lack motivation to fully participate in class activities and related homework assignments. Factors that can account for poor motivation include perceived irrelevance of courses to their everyday lives, unrealistic perceptions of their learning skills, low self-confidence, personal…

The responses of first-grade students to seatwork assignments were studied through detailed narrative records, copies of seatwork performance, and informal conversations with the students about their work. Two distinct groups of students were identified for comparisons: those whose responses to seatwork were frequently poor (low attention and low…

This article presents the results of qualitative research into how middle school students experience school reading. Students from grades 4 through 8 from four different schools were asked individually to draw and then to talk about specific times of their choice when they were and were not engaged in learning. The combined method of drawing and…

As the debate over the value of computerized reading management programs continues, teacher-librarians should consider how they may be used together with a reading skills program to help schools implement a balanced literacy program. Such a program would promote collaboration and help teachers to implement differentiated instruction. Reading…