One of the ironic facts that existed in our society is functional illiteracy. It does not mean that people cannot read or write. People know how to read and write but are unable to understand the meaning of a text they read. Thus, this research was held to answer the question of "How can students' awareness of functional literacy be…

This paper explores how Culturally Sustaining Systemic Functional Linguistics (CSSFL), a theoretical and pedagogical approach, facilitates emergent bilingual (EB) students' engagement in explicit, equitable literacy practices within the unique context of a middle school intensive reading classroom. This design-based research (DBR) study documents…

We live in a time of transition from print reading (off-line) to screen reading (on-line), where the role of the book and other literature is being taken over by different types of electronic devices (computers, tablets, smart phones). In the lives of young people, there is less and less printed media, because it is being pushed out by electronic…

Current pedagogical approaches recognize literacy as a social practice and yet school-based conceptualizations continue to dominate understandings of literacy learning of individuals with intellectual disability. Such understandings lead to local or everyday literacy practices being devalued and overlooked. Thus, for adults with intellectual…

This article examines the educational leadership of the first African American female principal in Richmond, Virginia: Mrs. Ethel Thompson Overby. It seeks to ascertain, through a historical framework utilizing critical race theory, how this particular educational and instructional leader conceptualized academic achievement given the context of…

This article describes an unconventional method to teach un-contracted braille reading and writing skills to students who are blind and have additional disabilities. It includes a keyboarding curriculum that focuses on the whole language approach to literacy. A special feature is the keyboard that is adapted with braille symbols. Un-contracted…

Once upon a time, Americans identified illiteracy among high school graduates as a national crisis. The solution, almost everyone agreed, was to teach every child to read by the end of third grade. If students could read well by then, the reasoning went, they would read even better in all the grades that followed. However, the 2005 results of the…

Definitions of literacy that focus solely on reading words provide too narrow a framework for many students with severe disabilities. Obtaining information from the environment may be accomplished in a variety of modes, such as visual literacy, which is the ability to discern meaning conveyed through images. A component of visual literacy is…

Considers motivations of adult illiterates involved in literacy programs, and gives examples of available programs. Describes difficulties, frustrations, and rewards for individuals completing such programs. Includes an estimate of the size of the adult literacy problem. (DHP)

Argues that a successful adult basic education program should recognize the differences between younger students and adults, provide a setting in which adults' dignity is not threatened, carefully diagnose each adult's needs, and prescribe and implement a program to meet those needs. (FL)

Summarizes the findings of Book Flood studies in Niue, Fiji, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Solomon Islands, and several other developing countries. It is possible to double the rate of reading acquisition of Third World primary school pupils with a Book Flood of about 100 high-interest books per class and short teacher training sessions.…

Describes how the work of modern poets can expand adult learners' views of the uses of reading and writing and their own ability and specifically shows how the works of Carl Sandburg, Lucille Clifton, William Carlos Williams, and Langston Hughes can be used to teach adults to read. (SRT)

Causes of aliteracy, having reading and writing skills but choosing not to use them, are discussed. Ways of preventing it by making reading relevant and connecting reading to writing are suggested. Enabling preservice teachers to become confident in their ability to write is stressed. (MT)

Relates current trends in public interpretations of reading research, which are prone to exaggeration and paranoia, to G. Larson's "Far Side" cartoons. Notes a substantial gap between what is taught in the schools to develop literacy abilities and what is demanded in society to demonstrate literacy competence. (SKC)

Presents a taxonomy of graphs, including lineal, quantitative, spatial, pictorial, hypothetical, and omitted graphs. Provides illustrations of each kind of graph and suggests that reading teachers take the responsibility for teaching graph reading and drawing skills. (MKM)