The purpose of this mixed-method case study is to determine the effect that a grade-wide literacy intervention program implemented through a professional learning community (PLC)has on the motivation, literacy identity, and performance of a cohort of sixth-grade students at a middle school in Norwalk, California. In this study, team of sixth-grade…

The range of teaching materials now available is becoming increasingly diverse. Despite this, however, the use and influence of textbooks in teaching still remains very high. When instructing reading comprehension, teachers often use textbooks as the basis for teaching in language lessons. Establishing a good match between textbooks and the skills…

In this study, middle school language arts teachers engaged in focus group interviews and shared their perceptions of content literacy, experiential learning, assessment data, and refined practice prior to and after participating in a sustained content literacy professional development. Findings based on these perceptions demonstrate a need for…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether teaching students about the structure of a text would be associated with improved reading comprehension. Science texts were used with the intention of adding to what is known about content-area reading comprehension. To investigate the effects of teaching science text structure, a reading…

This study compares the effectiveness of context clue strategy instruction to wide reading practices in terms of their impact on the vocabulary knowledge of students who read at frustration level. The participants were 44 sixth-grade students from a middle grades school. Students were randomly assigned to experimental and control conditions. The…

In this study, we examine evidence of transfer from reading instruction to students' learning of language arts and historical content as demonstrated by their independent writing and growth in background knowledge. We taught a unit in a sixth-grade language arts classroom in which students learned about design elements of graphic novels (e.g.,…

This article reports on the development of an online dynamic approach for assessing and improving students' reading comprehension of science texts--the dynamic assessment for reading comprehension of science text (DARCST). The DARCST blended assessment and response-specific instruction into a holistic learning task for grades 5 and 6 students. The…

This investigation examined how middle school teachers implemented Word Generation, a cross-content vocabulary intervention and how the program affected student learning of academic vocabulary words. Participants included four content area teachers and their sixth-grade students. Students received vocabulary instruction in their social studies,…

This study examined the viability of the Sentence Verification Technique (SVT; Royer, Hastings, & Hook, 1979) assessment tool as a curriculum-based measure of science content learning. Its perceived compatibility with statewide accountability test expectations made SVT a candidate for use in content-focused response to intervention frameworks.…

Identifying the factor structure of online reading to learn is important for the development of theory, assessment, and instruction. Traditional comprehension models have been developed from, and for, offline reading. This study used online reading to determine an optimal factor structure for modeling online research and comprehension among 426…

For any student, middle and high school can be challenging. But for an English learner or striving reader--and the myriad words, phrases, syntax, texts, and concepts they must negotiate on a daily basis--the stakes seem a whole lot higher. Fortunately for content-area teachers, Margarita Calderón and Shawn Slakk make available in a single resource…

Previous research has identified various factors that contribute to readers' comprehension of expository texts, including strategy expertise, language proficiency, prior knowledge, and more recently, readers' beliefs about knowledge. This study addresses the need to understand the relative contributions of these predictors to readers'…

Reading in the content areas of science, social studies, and current events is a difficult task that is even more elusive to Spanish speaking English language learners. There is a huge increase in children transitioning from their L1 (e.g., Spanish) to L2 (e.g., English) in classrooms across the US. These ELs face challenges due to a lack of…

The authors examined the role of an intervention designed to increase reading comprehension, reading self-efficacy beliefs, and engagement in social studies for middle school students of varying language backgrounds. Thirteen sixth- and seventh-grade teachers implemented the United States History for Engaged Reading (USHER) program with their…

"Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction" is a reading comprehension instructional program for grades 3-9 that integrates reading and science through activities and the use of science books during reading instruction. The program supplements a school's standard science and reading curricula and offers instruction in reading strategies,…