Fluent reading enables readers to focus on gaining meaning from what is read. This crucial facet of reading is often neglected instruction in elementary and is nearly non-existent in middle and high school instruction (Allington, 1983; Rasinski, Padak, McKeon, Wilfong, Friedauer, & Heim, 2005). At the elementary level, fluency instruction focuses…

The purpose of this applied dissertation study was to determine the relative impact of parental involvement, parental school perception, student generation status, and Caribbean adolescents' own attitudes and behavior towards academic achievement and reading comprehension skills. For this study, 45 Caribbean parents from Grenadian, Guyanese,…

This mixed methods study explored implementing guided reading in grades 3-5 in a suburban school district located in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how teachers implement guided reading in their classrooms and how the use of guided reading affects student achievement in Text Structure and Vocabulary, Reading…

This summative program evaluation study investigated the Response to Intervention (RTI) pilot literacy block program that was implemented in first and second grade classrooms in a small southeastern suburban school. All 111 students in the first and second grade were involved in this RTI model during the 2010-2011 school year including special…

The current study analyzed existing data, collected under a previous U.S. Department of Education Reading First grant, to investigate the strength of the relationship between scores on the first- through third-grade Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills-Oral Reading Fluency (DIBELS-ORF) test and scores on a reading comprehension test…

This study examined a Pseudoword Phonics Curriculum to determine if this form of instruction would increase students' decoding skills compared to typical real-word phonics instruction. In typical phonics instruction, children learn to decode familiar words which allow them to draw on their prior knowledge of how to pronounce the word and may…

This research sought to add to a body of knowledge that is severely underrepresented in the scientific literature, reading comprehension in secondary students. Chapter 1 examines the current state of literacy in the nation's public schools and the consequences that arise if students leave high school with inadequate reading skills. It discusses…

In this quasi-experimental study, the researcher examined teachers' awareness of the five essential components of reading instruction, teachers' knowledge of the five essential components, teachers' use of professional journals, and teachers' implementation of best practices in the context of a professional development intervention model called…

This study examined the effects of aligning the "Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL)" English Framework with Bloom's Taxonomy on student achievement. Changes prompted by "No Child Left Behind" legislation increased accountability for student success, as well as mandated testing to determine annual academic growth of all…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the application of metacognition theory as related to reading strategies and reading comprehension in the Fifth Grade. Specifically, the researcher examined the impact of metacognition in reading comprehension, the effect of metacognition on reading strategies, and the role the teacher…

Despite educational reforms to increase standards, many American children fail to read at levels that will enable them to compete in higher education and in the global economy. Standardized testing has reported a gradual decline in the reading scores of local second grade elementary students. The purpose of this project study was to create a…

For the large population of school-age English language learners in California and the United States, the challenge of learning a second language while learning academic content is formidable. Learning to read English skillfully is key to their success. Reading instruction focused on development of oral text-reading fluency has shown strong…

National testing standards have increased pressure on school personnel to identify and implement instructional practices that facilitate the academic achievement of at-risk students. No Child Left Behind legislation currently mandates that reading programs at the middle school level receiving federal funding must use scientifically validated…

Building on previous studies of multiple text reading in history, this study aimed to contribute to that body of work by focusing on non-traditional multimodal sources. In an age of rapidly increasing access to and use of multimodal sources and a demand for reading and comprehending increasingly complex and specialized texts, it appeared there was…

Reading teachers are faced with the challenge of providing instruction to a population of diverse students with various abilities and styles of learning within local and state school districts. In an effort to improve student performance on high-stake examinations in reading, teachers continue to seek the most effective instructional strategies.…