This newsletter of best practices in implementing the High Schools That Work (HSTW), Making Middle Grades Work (MMGW) and Technology Centers That Work (TCTW) school improvement models is based on presentations at the 27th Annual HSTW Staff Development Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the summer of 2013. The newsletter is divided up into…

This quasi-experimental study tested the effect of the 3-2-1 strategy on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' reading comprehension. A sample of Saudi EFL college-level students were randomly selected and divided into two groups: an experimental group (42 students) and a control group (43 students). Students of both groups took a reading…

Using the self-paced reading paradigm, the present study examines whether highly proficient second language (L2) speakers of German (English first language) use case-marking information during the on-line comprehension of unambiguous "wh"-extractions, even when task demands do not draw explicit attention to this morphosyntactic feature in German.…

For the majority of people in Ireland, Irish is a second language acquired primarily through the schooling system. This study examined the reading strategies children used in response to English and Irish words (presented in isolation), through an analysis of their oral reading errors. Children in their 4th year of schooling attending…

This article reports an investigation into the students' use of metacognitive reading strategies that involve the use of analytic and pragmatic reading strategies when reading in the two languages: English and Bahasa Indonesia. One-hundred and one students from the English Study Program within the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of…

The goal of this study was to compare the efficacy of assisted reading with digital audiobooks with the traditional practice of sustained silent reading (SSR) in terms of reading fluency and reading attitude with upper elementary students with reading disabilities. Treatment group participants selected authentic children's literature and engaged…

The poor performance of middle school students in reading was addressed by examining the effects of an 8-week reading intervention program for middle school students in one school district in the southeastern United States. Two research questions were developed: (a) Is there a significant difference in the level of the students' reading skills,…

This working paper explores contemporary research related to methods for teaching reading in Spanish and English in bilingual, foreign language, and English as a second language (ESL) classrooms. Changes stemming from innovations in research and learning are identified and a table is provided to compare methods of teaching reading in Spanish and…

Fluency instruction has had limited effects on reading comprehension relative to reading rate and prosodic reading (Dowhower, 1987; Herman, 1985; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000a). More specific components (i.e., error detection) of comprehension may yield larger effects through exposure to a wider range of materials…

Do proficient, bilingual readers of Spanish and English use different strategies when reading passages written in each language? Are there differences in the frequency with which proficient, bilingual readers of Spanish and English use particular strategies when reading these passages? Are there patterns in the manner in which the subjects use the…

Numerous studies have indicated that the provision of appropriate computer-mediated support to second language (L2) learners results in different vocabulary learning outcomes. However, there is no study available that investigates the transition in their way of learning vocabulary under the influence of technology-based support. This article…

Four classes of ninth-grade students in an international school in East Asia used a set of web-based technology tools to evaluate two competing webpages about the Taiwan Straits. The findings highlight the ways these students developed disciplinary literacy in social studies by drawing upon cultural resources and contextual knowledge as they…

This study examined the reading accuracy of dyslexic readers in comparison to chronological age-matched normally progressing readers in Hindi and English using word reading tasks, matched for spoken frequency of usage, age of acquisition, imageability, and word length. Both groups showed significantly greater reading accuracy in Hindi than in…

Research on early adolescence reveals significant declines in intrinsic motivation for reading and points out the need for metacognitive strategy use among middle school students. Research indicates that explicit instruction involving motivation and metacognitive support for reading strategy use in the context of a discipline is an efficient and…

This qualitative case study illustrates and compares the metacognitive strategies that a grade-3 female student used while reading narrative and informational texts. Data were collected from interviews, observations, and videotaping of the participant's narrative and informational text oral reading sessions and examined using thematic analysis.…