Using poetry to teach fluency through repeated reading is an effective way to improve students' reading fluency. Repeated reading of poetry is effective with students whose instructional reading level is between the first and third grades. Ten to 15 minutes of repeated reading per day over an extended length of time has proven successful for both…

This article describes instructional practices with blogs in elementary classrooms. Schools need to prepare students for the new literacies required when reading on the Internet; blogging is an easy way to begin. A theoretical rationale for blogging with elementary students is provided. Learning from the examples of successful blogs by elementary…

The author explores how the use of joke books can promote fluency in young readers. One young girl's fluency improved measurably, and her engagement and motivation to read the particular kind of text involved played a significant role. (Contains 2 tables.)

In an attempt to bring readers "on-the-ground" insights about effective urban literacy instruction, the authors interviewed three literacy educators who have extensive experience with learners in urban school environments. Each of them has taught literacy and developed teaching practices for urban schools, as well as conducted action research to…

Research suggests that parent involvement improves academic achievement, but in the busy world in which we live it is often difficult to promote. Many researchers suggest that successful programs value parents' limited time constraints, diversity of literacy skills, and availability of materials. The Great Poetry Race provides an easy vehicle to…

The authors provide teachers with a rationale for engaging students in independent reading using a differentiated approach. By profiling types of readers, sharing observational tools, and offering teaching suggestions for each type of reader the authors give practical suggestions to facilitate reading engagement and make independent reading more…

Second-grade students struggle with writing about mathematical topics during math class, so the teacher begins to integrate mathematical topics into their Writing Workshop. Content journals are used during math, and students are encouraged to write about personal connections to mathematical situations, as well as incorporate mathematical concepts…

This article draws on research from literacy and special education, as well as insights from autobiographies and memoirs authored by people on the autism spectrum, to argue that all students, including those without disability labels, benefit when students within the autism spectrum are included in classrooms with their same-age peers. An overview…

Concepts of museum literacies are introduced in this report. Information is presented for how museum literacies were initiated, designed, and produced in a second-grade classroom. Findings show how participants took up museum literacies differently, including their uses of printed texts and other communicative forms. Two short case studies are…

Informal classroom assessments remain essential tools for improving the instruction of students, even in an age of accountability testing. This article focuses specifically on Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs). Even though the growing number of commercially available IRIs has made choosing the ones most suitable for students' and teachers' needs…

This article addresses issues surrounding critical media literacy using popular culture texts. The authors focus on the example of their work with a fourth-grade class involved in a project to unpack the messages of popular media and advertising texts. This project, which they call the Elementary Bubble Project, was inspired by guerilla artist Ji…

The Picture It! reading strategy uses the elements of story grammar and visualization in a mnemonic format to enhance comprehension, aid vocabulary development, visually establish story sequence, and stimulate discussion of both the big picture of the story's meaning and the details which support the author's message. It is a strategy that can be…

When state and local standards drive instruction, teachers often worry about compromising their creativity for a prescriptive curriculum with predictable outcomes. It is possible for creative teaching to flourish by using touchstone texts, or mentor texts, that engage both teacher and student in exploratory yet purposeful learning. (Contains 1…

If reading fluency contributes to reading comprehension, then highly fluent readers should be expected to perform well in comprehension when reading materials are at their current grade level. The authors identified 171 elementary, middle, and secondary students who had been labeled by parents and teachers as strong readers and assessed as highly…

When response activities and comprehension strategies are combined, classroom instruction can enhance student engagement and understanding of a text, enrich student response, and improve students' awareness of their own strategic reading. This article presents some activities, adapted from the new IRA book "Children's Literature in the Reading…