Background: In the context of the ongoing crisis in early reading literacy in South Africa, this article gives insight into teacher practices which reduce learners' opportunities to read continuous text for meaning. Aim: This ethnographic study investigated the microcosm of teacher practices in well-resourced environments. Setting: A purposive…

The Common Core State Standards bring the importance of connecting texts to the forefront by sharing that students must be able to "analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches authors take" (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council…

Today's classrooms in the United States reflect the growing diversity of the changing world. In order to prepare high-quality multicultural educators, the authors of this article, three teacher educators at a large, mid-south, research-one university, collaborated to share successful strategies to infuse multicultural literature into the three…

The authors present findings from a data-driven account in which they followed ten fifth-grade students receiving intervention in reading through Georgia's test-based grade retention policy. Under the policy, the students had little confidence in themselves as readers and felt that reading test passages was unnecessary and difficult. Consequently,…

The acquisition of alphabetic knowledge (letter names, letter sounds, and letter forms) is an important predictor of later literacy achievement. This article describes research findings that provide new insights about how children learn the alphabetic principle and the implications for effective and efficient instruction of the alphabet. Teachers…

Launched in 2012, The Big Lift is a collective impact initiative extending from preschool to third grade that aims to boost children's reading proficiency in San Mateo County, California, through four different types of activities, called "pillars": (1) High-Quality Preschool, (2) Summer Learning, (3) School Attendance, and (4) Family…

The Big Lift is a collective impact initiative extending from preschool to third-grade in San Mateo County, California. The initiative is a partnership of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the San Mateo County Office of Education, and the County of San Mateo. Launched in 2012, the initiative aims to boost children's reading proficiency in…

Teaching vocabulary is a comprehensive process in foreign language learning requiring specific techniques of appropriate instruction and accurate strategy. The present study was conducted to examine the effects of teaching vocabulary to Turkish young learners in a semantic clustering way through digital storytelling. To investigate this aim, six…

In this study, we piloted a Tier 2 intervention designed to improve reading skills among struggling early readers using an intervention that included SRA Reading Mastery, listening-while-reading activities, strategies to increase motivation and engagement in reading, and parent involvement in reading homework. The study included 6 students in…

Purpose: This article reports on the practical application of Learning Elements advocated by the multiliteracies approach to classroom practice. Its ideas are grounded in the multiliteracies pedagogical principles of teaching and learning that address issues on literacy and learning in today's globalised world. The main objective of this study was…

The purpose of this current study is to build on the previous body of emergent literacy research by investigating the necessity of assessing book knowledge (e.g., print knowledge, interpretive knowledge, and letter identification) in toddlerhood to set up successful literacy development by providing independent storybook reading opportunities.…

Four primary grade teachers overcame challenges of textbook-based science reading through a focus on reading strategies and an emphasis on making meaning. Teachers used whole-class and small-group guided reading instruction to focus students on organizational and textual features of the science textbooks. They also used teacher-guided talk and…

This article shares the insights of a tutor as she works with a fourth-grade African American girl. For this case study, the authors use interactive read-alouds and writing samples to document the reading and writing events of this yearlong tutorial experience. They report on the power of critical literacy to engage a developing reader and improve…

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of special education and general education teachers working together to develop and implement story-based lessons on the academic engaged time of students with moderate intellectual disability and autism. A multiple probe across participants' design was used to measure teacher implementation of…

Reading Improvement Through Art (RITA) program is an interdisciplinary approach to literacy that blends visual art with reading comprehension, evaluated in nine New York City urban high schools. 240 problem readers participating in the pilot program were pre- and post-tested in the Fall 1975 and Spring 1976 semesters. The testing showed the 9th…