Reading motivation is an important contributor to reading achievement. Students with higher levels of motivation tend to outperform those with lower levels. Reading motivation is a dynamic, situational, context-dependent trait that can vary in children over time and across tasks. Teachers have a valuable opportunity to support students' reading…

This study investigated the relationship between flexible learning environments and student attitudes about reading. Flexible learning environments are spaces wherein learners can choose from different seating or standing options, locations within the learning space, and the size group with which to work. This allows the learner to find the…

This study examined the relationships among school leadership practices, parental involvement, disciplinary climate, students' perceptions on reading, and student achievement with sample obtained from the combined data of Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011…

Across one school year, in which I coached a fourth-grade teacher, she and I took an inquiry stance investigating how we could come to understand the reading identities kids held relative to Stephens' (2013) list of characteristics of effective and efficient readers. We also sought to understand how we could help kids develop, sustain, or extend…

Literacy educators hold different beliefs about the best approaches to teach students how to read and about the reading process including a skills view of reading and learning to read versus a transactional, sociopsycholinguistic view of reading and learning to read (Weaver, 2002). Reading for understanding is an important skill to develop in…

This study tested the effects of a Sustained Silent Reading program on reading achievement and reading attitude. The study accessed scores from the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (Good, Kaminski, & Dill, 2007) to measure reading achievement. This measure was given before and after a twelve week period, during which the treatment group…

The traditional classroom educational approach has been unsuccessful in helping special education and non-special education students who are not proficient readers. The problem addressed in this study was that a large number of American children are experiencing difficulty learning to read. One possible way to help students learn to read is…

America's public schools have faced challenges in educating students, particularly those identified as at risk. According to the No Child Left Behind Act, nearly 70% of 4th grade students are unable to perform on a basic level on national reading tests. The research problem in this study addressed the significance of guided reading instruction,…

The Jump Start Literacy Camp was developed as a means to combat summer learning loss. The camp utilized high-energy activities to target phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. This study examined the effects of the Jump Start Literacy Camp on reading achievement for rising third and fourth grade students in an urban…

The author replicated and extended a study by Flowerday, Schraw, & Stevens (2004) that examined the effects of choice, topic interest, and situational interest on reading engagement, attitude, and learning in college-age students. The study was replicated using fourth and fifth graders as subjects. The study was extended to examine the effects of…

The purpose of this mixed research design study was to examine how teachers in a large urban Midwestern district used Thinking Maps® with students in elementary school general education and special education classrooms. In addition, this study examined the use of Thinking Maps® with 30 urban elementary school males in two schools: one second…

At its most fundamental level, like all instruction, comprehension instruction is composed of moment-to-moment interactions among students and between students and their teacher. Children's competence at making meaning from texts and their motivation to read are shaped by a variety of classroom influences, one of the most important of which may be…