This study examined the effect of a supplemental, multicomponent reading intervention with 75 seventh graders who scored below grade level according to a battery of assessments. Students received a yearlong reading intervention during the 2021-2022 or 2022-2023 school year. Students' pretest and posttest data were compared to determine the impact…

While adolescent foundational skills interventions can be critical levers for reading improvement, district leaders, teachers, and researchers must make complex decisions about how to evaluate their effectiveness in context. In this discussion article, we explore three issues and tensions we experienced during a 2-year research-practice…

Research has strongly supported the role of classroom talk as a valuable teaching and learning tool. Carefully crafted teacher-student discussions that encourage broad student participation and knowledge building correlate with increased knowledge generation and higher academic achievement. To better understand classroom talk as an instructional…

Educational policy in the U.S. currently centers on college and career readiness, with the spotlight is on high schools to meet higher expectations for students' literacy achievement. Ever-rising expectations are consistent with the U.S. standards movement, now in its third iteration. As funding for school improvement becomes increasingly scarce,…

In a large urban district's ELA classrooms, an academic vocabulary intervention designed to improve linguistically diverse 6th-graders' reading and language skills was implemented and evaluated. These classrooms were characterized by high numbers of struggling readers, and linguistic diversity was the norm. As part of the evaluation, this study…

This Research Connections column describes the background to and the research base for the San Diego Unified School Districts' federally funded Striving Readers Project. The curriculum for the project was developed out of a longitudinal study into the literacy experiences of secondary students in New Zealand and from exploratory work in San Diego…

The Observation/Inference (OI) Chart is a strategy that can help students learn to make observations and inferences when reading nontraditional texts such as artifacts, paintings or movies. Nontraditional texts can be highly engaging and provide authentic thinking experiences for students, but they can also be difficult to comprehend. Teachers can…

In this study the author charts the trajectory of an adolescent student's identity, from being a struggling reader to a competent reader and successful young actor. The author argues that reading is central to our ability to make sense of both our inner selves and our surroundings, and that it is therefore imperative that unskilled readers are…

This formative experiment was designed to ensure that a group of high school students developed their literacy habits. The intervention consisted of a schoolwide approach to literacy using four instructional routines: think-alouds, note-taking writing to learn, and dedicated reading time. As part of the formative experiment, we document the…

Two pressing education reforms entail improving students' reading skills and improving high schools in the United States. In this article, the authors focus on both of these issues by adding the voices of students in an underperforming high school to the discussion about reading reform. We present the results of a larger study pertaining…

Argues that instructional activities involving visuals help secondary learners understand and remember what they read. Discusses why and how teachers should use visuals. Presents strategies for using textbook visuals and learner-generated visuals. (SR)

Shows how word processors and color printers are promising tools for helping students to think more clearly as they read. Discusses how students can use different colored lettering to identify topic sentences; to separate descriptive from narrative or informational writing; to separate information from emotion in writing; and to make changes if…

Describes a simple previewing procedure that provides support for second-language students dealing with challenging reading selections. Describes a preview, gives an example, and suggests why they are effective. Summarizes results of a study, and concludes with suggestions for using previews in the classroom. (SR)

Describes an instructional practice called "SCAN and RUN" (intended to promote greater reading comprehension development and success in a wider range of students) that uses a novel system of seven cues for strategies to increase reading comprehension by guiding students' understanding, learning, and recall of content material. Presents encouraging…

Describes several ways in which the newspaper is a useful resource for teaching reading skills and for allowing students to model just about all types of writing. (SR)