Academic language and its associations with school success have been established in many prior studies. However, the scholarship lacks research on the mechanisms that constitute these relations. This study investigates the mediating role of motivational-­affective variables, specifically reading self-concept and reading enjoyment, in relations…

Reading motivation is an important contributor to reading achievement. Students with higher levels of motivation tend to outperform those with lower levels. Reading motivation is a dynamic, situational, context-dependent trait that can vary in children over time and across tasks. Teachers have a valuable opportunity to support students' reading…

Dyad reading involves a lower level reader paired with a higher level reading partner who models proficient oral reading while providing access to challenging texts. Previous research has reported increased reading fluency and comprehension for participants of dyad reading; however, to date no research has investigated how dyad reading may…

The Reading and Me Survey (R&MS) measures reading self-perceptions and enjoyment of reading of intermediate elementary students and parallels the Math & Me Survey (M&MS). We examined its psychometric properties through content validation, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and reliability and…

The NCAA Read to the Final Four Literacy competition was initiated in a partnership between the Houston Independent School District (HISD), NCAA Team Works®, Houston NCAA Final Four Local Organizing Committee, Houston Public Library, the University of Houston, and CYCLE (Changing Young Children's Lives through Education). The competition was…

This intervention mixed methods study used a quasi-experimental design to investigate the effects of an after-school book club on third-grade boys' reading achievement, attitudes, and preferences. During the 2015-2016 school year, seven third-grade boys from a South Texas elementary school attended an after-school book club in their school library…

In this article, we describe an action research project conducted by the first author in her third-grade classroom over the course of one academic year as she documented four students' reading growth during a modified version of Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA). We highlight an additional step in the RMA process, which includes providing…

An existing school program in which therapy dogs are integrated into the reading curriculum was analyzed to determine the effect on student reading. Previous literature suggests an improvement in both reading skills and attitudes towards reading when students read in the presence of a therapy dog. Using a mixed method model, the researchers…

This study investigated the effects of a reading strategy, repeated readings, on third grade students' reading achievement and attitudes. One hundred sixteen third grade students as members of six classrooms in one elementary school participated in this 10 week study. Using a quasi-experimental pretest posttest design, students' mean…

Summer setback, which is defined as a decline in academic achievement over the summer months, occurs in many academic areas but seems especially problematic in reading. We assessed students from a midwestern parochial school serving predominantly students from a low--socioeconomic status background for their reading achievement before they left…

The purpose of this study was to examine what information third-grade boys attending school in three rural school districts might contribute to current understanding about what motivates boys to engage in reading. A multi-method, multi-sensory Mosaic Approach was used to explore, record, and interpret the voices of the 14 boys with varying levels…

The development of interest in reading and its relationship to reading ability was examined longitudinally in 117 children in Grades 1-3. Interest in reading was measured by eight items from the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey. Less able readers had lower interest in reading, but their development was parallel to that of more able readers.…

The Jump Start Literacy Camp was developed as a means to combat summer learning loss. The camp utilized high-energy activities to target phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. This study examined the effects of the Jump Start Literacy Camp on reading achievement for rising third and fourth grade students in an urban…

The main purpose of schools is to improve the academic performance of all students and more recently with special regard to those that have historically struggled to meet state achievement goals. In an effort to attain these goals, educators have utilized many approaches including enhancing student self-esteem as a precursor to improving the…

This research study investigated the effectiveness of an early reading intervention for self-efficacy (E-RISE) on struggling readers' efficacy and reading achievement in an at-risk elementary school setting. A total of 117 first, second, and third graders participated. The intervention group contained 39 students, and the comparison group…