Discussions and practices focused on Black boys' literacy development and equity in U.S. classrooms require serious thought and interrogation if the aim is to move these boys toward advanced levels of reading, writing, intellectual development, and human development. Sorely, Black boys have become subjects of educational, programming, and policy…

Engaging in frequent, meaningful conversation during the early years of schooling is foundational for children's literacy development. Specifically, developing oral language through daily conversations is essential for language comprehension, and eventually, reading comprehension. In this article, we discuss how teachers can use the…

Children in a grade two/three classroom co-designed photographs of each other's important family objects to develop critical empathy and better understand their peers' home cultures. They engaged in visual critical literacy practices. The paper provides a narrative of what happened and a framework for creative collaborative pedagogy.

This article provides a "snapshot" of fourth grade English Language Arts (ELA) vocabulary instruction before and after implementation of college and career readiness standards. Our exploratory study's findings demonstrate the instructional shifts for teaching deep vocabulary knowledge as required by college and career readiness…

Literacy coaches are more effective when they have a clear plan for their collaborations with teachers. This article provides details of such a plan, which involves identifying a problem, understanding the problem, deciding what to do differently, and trying something different. For each phase of the problem-solving model, there are key tasks for…

As the popularity of project-based learning grows, so does the importance of understanding how this instructional approach can support students' learning and development. The authors describe a project-based approach to literacy and social studies instruction that research has shown to be effective. Key characteristics of the approach and…

Given that our current educational context has required many educators to utilize online instruction in some capacity over the past year, the purpose of this paper is to describe how literacy specialists and teachers can use digital tools to remotely engage in data-based decision-making within a collaborative professional learning community.…

College and career readiness has become a top priority for elementary schools. Skills-focused approaches often are the sole method of preparing students for their postsecondary futures, which can overshadow the identities that students bring to the classroom. In contrast, the authors adopted an identity-centered approach to literacy instruction…

The National Reading Panel (NRP) identified five pillars, or essential components, of reading instruction that lead to the highest chance of reading success--phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. A decade after the NRP's report, the majority of US states adopted the Common Core State Standards/English Language Arts…

The International Literacy Association is a global advocacy organization, and literacy is viewed as a human right worldwide. This department highlights research and research-to-practice at the international level to bring global best teaching practices to the forefront. Topics may include best practices for literacy instruction in Europe or other…

In this article, we describe how literacy strategies can be adapted for playing (and reading) video games--games that embed disciplinary content in multimedia texts. Using close viewing and guided playing strategies with online games and simulations, we share ideas for helping students navigate and comprehend multimedia texts in order to learn…

In the classroom, teachers have long used videos as an addendum to the instruction they provide. Still, using video is often seen in a negative light and is used sparingly. This column calls upon research from a variety of fields that supports the use of video to enhance literacy instruction in classrooms. Relying on both theory and practice, the…

This article describes how one urban elementary school's professional development workshop on technology helped teachers grow in their knowledge and practice of a digital reading and writing workshop model. Created in partnership with university faculty, school administration, and elementary teachers, this whole-school professional development…

Building on existing research applying app maps (Israelson, 2015), the authors take an ideological orientation to broaden app evaluations and consider participatory literacies, social and communicational practices relevant to children's everyday digitally mediated lives. Drawing from their North American elementary classroom studies on children's…

Language and, specifically, vocabulary development plays a critical role in early literacy development. This article describes Exceptional Coaching for Early Language and Literacy (ExCELL), which is a research-based, effective preschool program that focuses on developing Head Start enrollees' language and preliteracy skills. The ExCELL program…