Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to examine how children with isolated speech sound disorders (SSDs; n = 20), children with combined SSDs and language impairment (LI; n = 20), and typically developing children (n = 20), ages 3;3 (years;months) to 6;6, differ in narrative ability. The second purpose was to determine if early narrative…

It is essential to help foster students' social awareness in addition to their academic skills. Through discussions of stories that emphasize social issues such as racism and prejudice, students have the opportunity to develop and explore their own beliefs. But what do they really learn, and how? In this article, the authors document their efforts…

Studied effects of explicit reading comprehension instruction on low-performing ninth grade students' ability to comprehend short stories. Interactive instructional method was used to teach students a strategy based on story grammar for comprehending and analyzing complex short stories. (DG)

Literacy consultant Joan Groeber provides educators with a teacher-friendly, step-by-step guide for creating and using rubrics to assess a wide range of literacy skills. Groeber's approach helps ensure that students gain a clear understanding of teacher expectations and assume a greater responsibility for their own learning. Offering an overview…

Reports a study, using sixth graders' introspective self-reports, to determine the context in which students use knowledge about narrative text structure, how they use this knowledge, and why they do not always employ this knowledge. (RAE)

This paper offers a description of the Ball-Stick-Bird reading system which has been used successfully to teach students with IQs as low as 20 to read with comprehension. A summary of research findings on this approach is presented as well as a discussion of these findings within a neurological/behavioral/evolutionary framework. A new theory of…

This article describes a research study that implemented literacy methods for the purpose of promoting reading comprehension with links to student writing through the practice of integrating reader response before, during, and following teacher read-alouds, and then extending the reader response into the composing process of student-created…