Grassroots efforts and other advocacy have led to the vast majority of states adopting policies designed to improve the reading outcomes of all children, including those who struggle to read. Whereas these policies consider various aspects of reading, much of their emphasis has been on developing word reading accuracy and fluency through explicit…

Reading comprehension seems to be a significant challenge for rising fifth graders with limited vocabulary knowledge. A possible solution is to provide them with explicit vocabulary instruction which may positively impact their reading comprehension. This action research aimed to evaluate the effect of implementing explicit vocabulary instruction…

Educators and researchers have been fighting the reading wars for the last century, with battles see-sawing literacy instruction in American schools from phonics to whole language and, most recently, back to phonics again. Over the last decade, 32 states and the District of Columbia have adopted new "science of reading" laws that require…

This study, using pretest-intervention-posttest, investigated whether instructing English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' in the use of reading strategies when they read English passages affects their English reading performances. The participants were 51 Turkish learners of English, who were at elementary level of language proficiency,…

Direct Instruction (DI), commercially marketed by McGraw-Hill as Reading Mastery and Corrective Reading, is a bundle of highly scripted reading programs emphasizing phonics and phonemic awareness. This assessment considers 40 recently published studies on DI in order to consider the program's aims and efficacy as a means of teaching reading. Our…

This case study retrospectively reflects on a self-contained teacher's decision to pair publisher-created adapted text with audio support as part of a multicomponent reading intervention. She evolved from creating her own adapted text to implementing publisher-created adapted text throughout a school year. The study analyzed students' reading…

Upon entering high school, students with ID who may be able to read simple texts often have difficulty grasping meaning when required to understand more complex texts. This failure affects their overall academic performance, since at this age, it is no longer just a question of learning to read, but rather of reading to learn, in all disciplines.…

We present results of an evaluation of the first year of a multi-year comprehensive middle school reading program. Four public middle schools in rural Virginia with large populations of students with limited reading proficiency participated in a study to determine the reading program's impact. We evaluated 235 students with low reading achievement…

No Child Left Behind Act created a paradigm shift in the education field for all students including students with disabilities. The act impacted students with disabilities because the expectation of education changed in many areas. The expectation of highly qualified teachers teaching utilizing research based strategies and the requirement of…

Discourse markers (DMs) instruction is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in the literature on second language learning. As noted by Al-Yaari, Al Hammadi, Alyami, and Almaflehi (2013), and Algouzi (2014), the use of DMs is insufficient to support the development of the language skills, especially reading, of Saudi English as a…

"READ 180®" is a reading program designed for struggling readers who are reading 2 or more years below grade level. It combines online and direct instruction, student assessment, and teacher professional development. "READ 180®" is delivered in 90-minute sessions that include whole-group instruction, three small-group…

"Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition"[R] ("CIRC"[R]) is a reading and writing program for students in grades 2-6. It has three principal elements: story-related activities, direct instruction in reading comprehension, and integrated language arts/writing. Daily lessons provide students with an opportunity to practice…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of two implementation variables (source of technical support and time of implementation) to first grade reading achievement across three naturally-occurring conditions over a six-year time span. Two of the conditions involved implementation of Direct Instruction (DI) curriculum programs,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a Direct Instruction summer reading intervention program designed to minimize summer reading regression. The summer intervention program targeted the lowest quartile of readers in grades kindergarten through third grade from a suburban school district over a three-week period before…

This research attempts to investigate the degree of students' achievement in reading comprehension in English as a foreign language through explicit instruction in metadiscourse markers. For this purpose, 80 students studying at a language school (placed at intermediate levels of English language proficiency) were chosen to participate in the…