Despite the value of reading, research documents declining reading rates among American adolescents - a decline that exacerbates student dropout rates and academic performance. As a high school English teacher in a public, regional, suburban school, increasing the number of students who deeply read the assigned texts for class has been a…

This study explores the practical effects of lexical and collaborative learning on improving reading comprehension and analytical writing skills among twelfth-grade students in Chinese language classes. A sample of 30 students aged 17 to 19 was selected from a public high school in China. The Chinese Reading Comprehension Skills Test Paper…

Within the secondary level of education covering students in grades 6-12, reading comprehension continues to be an area of concern for traditional public-school educators. Because students lack the foundations of reading upon entering middle and high school, on average across the United States, many students struggle to meet high school graduation…

This article examines the author's interactions with the teaching strategy known as Reciprocal Teaching, sometimes also called Reciprocal Reading, which involves students learning to read collaboratively in small groups. Reciprocal Teaching typically involves students teaching each other by following a rubric of activities that are aimed at…

Graphic novels use visual literacy and multimodal learning two methods of teaching. Graphic novels also have a history of being motivating to students. This study aims to quantify the degree of influence graphic novels have on secondary student comprehension and motivation. Students were recruited from two classrooms taught by one twelfth-grade…

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…

The integration of knowledge during reading was tested in 1,109 secondary school students. Reading times for the second sentence in a pair (Jane's headache went away) were compared in conditions where the first sentence was either causally or temporally related to the first sentence (Jane took an aspirin vs. Jane looked for an aspirin).…

"Repeated reading" is an academic practice that aims to increase oral reading fluency. "Repeated reading" can be used with students who have developed initial word reading skills but demonstrate inadequate reading fluency for their grade level. During "repeated reading," a student sits in a quiet location with a…

At one high school, the goal for nonproficient reading students was to score at or above the 50th percentile to meet adequate yearly progress objectives. In 2010, the performance levels of nonproficient reading students tested with the state reading test in Grades 9 and 10 declined from the 47th to the 46th percentile. The purpose of this research…

Research supports using research-based comprehension strategies; however, comprehension strategy instruction is not highly visible in basal reading programs or classroom instruction, resulting in many students who struggle with comprehension. A content analysis examined which research-based comprehension strategies were presented in five…

According to a 2010 report by ACT, "Only 31 percent of students are performing at a college-and-career reading level with respect to successfully understanding complex text" (p. 5). This statistic demonstrates what educators know: Middle and high school students face numerous challenges in reading, understanding, connecting to, and…

Compressed speech tapes--recordings of a voice reading a selection at the normal rate of approximately 150 words per minute that are speeded up to as much as 400 words a minute--can be used successfully with students to provide practice in improving reading rate and comprehension. In a field test conducted with 23 high school juniors and seniors…

To assess the reading achievement of American school children, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) surveyed nationally representative samples of approximately 13,000 students at grades 4, 8, and 12 attending public and private schools across the nation. Students read a variety of literary and informative passages and then…

The second British Columbia (B.C.) Reading Assessment was conducted in the spring of 1980 to evaluate the reading skills of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. The four areas of reading achievement measured were word attack, word meaning, passage comprehension, and applied reading/study skills. A panel of evaluators included educators and…

An investigation was conducted into the difference between two levels of comprehension: that which black high school seniors bring to the reading of English prose and that which they achieve from actual reading. A pre- and post-test treatment was administered. No significant difference was found between pre- and post-reading comprehension of these…