In a sea of troubling reports about education, teaching, reading, and the well-being of teens, Ivey and Johnston bring some good news that shows what happens when we stop underestimating young people. This accessible book offers an engaging account of a 4-year study of adolescents who went from reluctant to enthusiastic readers. These youth…

Many adolescent readers experience difficulties comprehending informational text, which may result from underlying difficulties with foundational skills (e.g., word recognition and fluency), knowledge demands (e.g., background, text structure, and vocabulary), and/or reading motivation. Supplemental interventions for adolescents targeting only…

This research explored ways in which educators can provide learners with differentiated instruction through student choice that provides engagement to positively interact with a student's reading identity. Throughout their learning journey, learners may have both positive and negative experiences with reading that directly affect their reading…

Many teachers feel that students should not struggle with text; instead, they should read easier texts in order to learn from them and make adequate growth in reading. In turn, teachers might use easier or leveled texts as a solution or a graphic novel or multimodal version to differentiate text reading and to motivate and engage reluctant…

The motivational, cognitive, and performance benefits associated with setting goals are presented in light of goal-setting theory. These theoretical principles provide a framework that teachers can use to guide students in setting and pursuing personal reading goals that are proximal, specific, and compatible with students' reading abilities…

This study investigated the impact of spaced and massed instruction on foreign language reading motivation and reading attitude among Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners. To fulfil this objective, 60 Iranian participants were chosen among 120 students based on the results of Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The selected pre-intermediate…

Through "Evangelii Gaudium" (2013) and "Laudato si'" (2015) Pope Francis has approached contemporary culture head-on with a call for Catholics to engage, and not retreat from, the changes and challenges of the 21st century. Traditional expectations and norms of society such as education, occupations, communication, and…

Youth in middle and secondary grades, between childhood and the adult world, sometimes struggle with their identities as readers and learners. Too many describe themselves or are described by their teachers and parents as "reluctant, disengaged, and/or unmotivated" by classroom texts or by the rows of books in school libraries. Even…

This article presents a case study of development of reading identity in Angelica, a 15 year old Latina. The paper explores the literacy experiences in school that positioned Angelica as a struggling reader. It also examines the efforts of significant others in school and out-of-school contexts, as well as her own efforts, to contest this…

This randomized controlled study examines the effects of an intervention, Fusion Reading, on the reading achievement and motivation of adolescent struggling readers. Fusion Reading was implemented in grades 6 through 10 in four middle schools and three high schools from three districts in the southeast and western Michigan. Eligible struggling…

This study estimates the effect of one year of Fusion Reading implementation, a multistrategy intervention, builds on the work of the Strategic Instruction Model's Learning Strategies Curriculum and Xtreme Reading by integrating some of the same strategies (e.g., paraphrasing, visual imagery, and self-questioning for information acquisition;…

Evidence suggests that there is a crisis in adolescent literacy. Part of the problem is that students often receive little literacy instruction after elementary school. This "Focus On" examines the literacy instruction that adolescents need to be successful as they move on to more challenging texts in middle and high school. In addition, this…

Over the last years, in many countries worldwide, there has been a decline in the reading skills of upper secondary school students, and their ability to read and understand advanced literature. Seeing this as an alarming change for the worse, governments, educational bodies and interested groups have taken various measures to address the issue.…

In this paper, we examine the various nuanced dimensions of adolescents' dispositions towards reading in one secondary school in Singapore, where a high-stakes examination culture often threatens to colonise the practices of leisure reading. Our focus is on the better and more avid readers as they were the ones that developed the more negative…

This study explores connections among adolescent engagement with reading, peer relationships, and identity development. The author chose and interviewed 10 of his former students, their parents, and the students' current teachers, and analyzed themes, drawing on Gee's theory of primary and secondary Discourses. The case studies illustrate how…