Fifth graders' interpretations of nonfiction or informational text were explored. Each literature circle group read and responded to informational text. Discoveries included that students' conversations and written responses were closely connected to text and that students created multimodal responses.

Purpose: In this discussion as part of a response to Catts and Kamhi's "Prologue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Activity" (2017), the authors provide selected examples from 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade texts to demonstrate, in agreement with Catts and Kamhi, that reading comprehension is a multifaceted and complex ability. The…

Metacognitive strategies are needed for readers to be successful in comprehending nonnarrative social studies texts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the metacognitive strategies used by proficient readers (students reading above-grade-level) and struggling (students reading below-grade-level) readers comprehending social studies…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate students' perceptions of their experiences with literature circles across elementary grades. A stratified random sample of 24 diverse students in grades one, three, four, and five were individually interviewed to obtain perceptions of their attitudes toward literature circles and their…

This study examined the motivation to read of children in grades two through six. All children in the study were strong in their literal comprehension of narrative text. Some were equally strong in their ability to respond thoughtfully to the text (Blue Group); others struggled to respond to questions requiring them to think about the implications…

Over the last decade there has been an increased focus on high-stakes standardized tests in reading and math. Social studies has been devalued in the classroom as many teachers and administrators focus their attention on reading and math instruction to avoid the punitive consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act. (2001). Based on this…

This study offers an alternative to traditional notions of scaffolding for reading comprehension by tracing the evolution of a fifth-grade small group literature conversation in which the teacher sought to displace himself as "primary knower" (Berry, 1981) in the conversation. The study examines how the teacher shared evaluation with his…