This mixed methods action research study explored how students reacted to using literature circles to enhance their knowledge and understanding of reading nonfiction text as compared to students using guided reading. This study showed a minimal improvement for students participating in the literature circle group in overall understanding of…

The purpose of this study was to identify the specific strategies that teachers believe are most effective in helping below-level students attain reading success. The scope of the study included seasoned first-grade teachers in the School District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The methodology took the form of a qualitative approach with the use…

Students who have the ability of working through text, while at the same time comprehending what they read, increase the likelihood of school success and lifelong learning (Johnson, 2006). In primary grades, teachers understand that students are learning how to read and in intermediate grades, students are reading to learn new knowledge about a…

This article reports on a large scale randomized controlled trial to study the efficacy of a web-based intelligent tutoring system for the structure strategy designed to improve content area reading comprehension. The research was conducted with 128 fifth-grade classrooms within 12 school districts in rural and suburban settings. Classrooms within…

This study investigated elementary teachers' observations of how a representative sample of achieving, average and struggling readers adapted the use of best practice comprehension strategies taught in the classroom as well as during instructional level guided reading time. A researcher-constructed strategy checklist was the instrument teachers…

The study reviewed in this paper examined the effects of a web-based tutoring program, "Intelligent Tutoring of the Structure Strategy" ("ITSS"), on the reading comprehension of fourth-grade students in language arts classrooms. The analysis included 1,875 to 2,371 fourth-grade students from 100 to 117 classrooms in…

Reports from research and the larger educational community demonstrate that too many students have limited ability to comprehend texts. The research reported here involved a two-year study in which standardized comprehension instruction for representations of two major approaches was designed and implemented. The effectiveness of the two…