Reading skills in a Midwestern suburban school are poorly developed. Evidence of the problem includes test scores, students' inability to read directions in text as reported by the teachers of the school, and oral reading performances by the students. This action research study describes methods for increasing active strategic reading as an…

This research intended to describe interventions to enhance students' motivation to read for enjoyment. Students' personal reasons for reading may include curiosity, social involvements, emotional satisfaction and/or necessity. Other reasons for reading may include: sustained involvement; challenge; compliance; recognition; competition; and work…

This report describes a program for increasing students' language arts skills by incorporating modeling and grade appropriate comprehension activities. The targeted population consisted of Kindergarten, 4th, and 6th grade students in a rural middle class community located in central Illinois. The problems with language arts skills were documented…

A balanced, systematic, instructional reading program was designed to increase word recognition in beginning readers. The targeted population consisted of first graders in an upper middle class community located in the Chicago suburbs. The lack of word recognition was documented through assessments revealing students' phonemic awareness, reading…

This report describes a program for improvement of student social skills to include respect for self and others, conflict resolution, and self-control. The targeted population consisted of first, fifth, and seventh graders located in northwestern Illinois. The problems of deficiencies in social skills were documented. Data were collected from…

A quasi-experimental action research evaluated a program for computerized self-assessment of reading comprehension (The Accelerated Reader) in two schools in severely socio-economically disadvantaged areas. Finds the program, even when less than fully implemented, yielded gains in reading achievement superior to gains from regular classroom…

This study explores the use of design technology to teach a unit on poetry in a fifth grade class. The main goals of the poetry unit were to develop students' abilities to use their own creative voices to express themselves and to write descriptive poetry that creates detailed images for the reader. This unit was implemented in a fifth grade class…

This report describes a program that used both critical and creative thinking skills to enhance the educational process in language arts. The targeted population consisted of fourth- and seventh-grade students in two growing, middle-class communities located in northern Illinois. The lack of higher-order thinking skills was documented through…

An action research report described a program for enhancing students' ability to focus on instructional processes and oral directions. The targeted population was comprised of 4th-, 5th-, and 8th-grade students from 3 different metropolitan schools in southwest Cook County, Illinois. The problem of off-task behavior, including distractible…

An action research study described and evaluated a program for improving the reading comprehension of targeted first, second, and third grade students, in a progressive suburban community in northern Illinois. The problem was noted by the researchers, who in recent years had observed a need for improvement in reading comprehension as indicated by…

An action research project described a program for expanding multiple intelligences to increase reading comprehension in both English and math. The targeted population consisted of ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade students located in a south suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The problem of reading comprehension was documented through data revealing…

A program using cooperative learning to improve the teamwork skills of high school-level vocational home economics students in multicultural, economically diverse communities was developed and tested during a 5-month action research project. The research phase of the project included the following: 71 of the students enrolled in the classes Home…

This paper reviews what current research says about best practices in reading instruction for students with mild mental retardation. After introducing some key reading issues (such as effects of early reading failure), two principal approaches to reading instruction are discussed: first, the traditional/bottom-up synthetic approach which begins…

This action research compilation contains two research projects: "Increasing Student Appreciation of Poetry through the Use of Contemporary Music" by Paul G. Senjem and "Are Men and Women Created Equal? Gender in the Classroom" by Jennifer Joyce Plitzuweit. The researcher/author of the first paper states that his goal was to…

This report describes a program to increase intermediate students' interest in writing through the integration of technology. The targeted population consisted of fifth grade students at a medium sized elementary school in the suburb of a large midwestern city. The problem was the low level of student interest in classroom writing activities. The…