The purpose of this study was to examine three seventh grade R180 teachers' perceptions regarding the local setting factors and role of the teacher impacting the program's implementation across the three middle schools. The conceptual framework guiding this study was derived from the Scholastic R180 Logic-of-Change Model, which depicts an…

Founder and executive director of National Reading Styles Institute (www.nrsi.com) describes several instructional methods designed to help below-level readers improve their reading skills, such as choral reading, echo reading, and recording. Describes positive effects of reading style instructional methods in a Texas elementary school and a…

Shows that both middle school and high school students improved in reading and writing as a result of a 55-day program which used newspapers and newspaper-based instruction as classroom supplements to traditional reading materials. (SR)

In this article, the authors describe the balanced literacy pilot program at Monroe Middle School in Tampa, Florida. Monroe implemented the program as part of a districtwide effort to improve student literacy. It uses a four-pronged approach to improve literacy: (1) read-alouds; (2) independent reading; (3) shared reading; and (4) guided reading.…

Describes several techniques middle school teachers can use to help students make the transition from skills oriented to content oriented reading as they pass from the elementary to the secondary level. (RB)

Explores how motivation to read and engagement in reading can be increased in classrooms through Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction. Describes how, in this instructional framework, teachers emphasize seven principles for creating engaging classrooms, including real-world observation, conceptual themes, self-directed learning, strategy…

Discusses research, and strategies and activities for vocabulary development, grouped into five areas: knowing words, morphology, the use of context, the role of definitions in understanding words, and the size and growth of vocabulary. Outlines questions for metalinguistic awareness that can help engage students in word learning. Offers 10…

Cognitive strategy instruction is currently garnering much attention in the literature as an effective means of teaching children who display learning difficulties in a wide variety of academic areas. In reading, the Paraphrasing Strategy, which is one of an array of strategies used in the Strategies Intervention Model (SIM) (Schumaker, Deshler, &…

Argues how important it is that reading support continue in middle schools. Describes briefly the Young Hoosier Book Award Program for Indiana middle schools. Outlines conditions in schools that seem to affect participation in such programs. (SR)

This program, included in "Effective Reading Programs...," serves 1650 disadvantaged students in grades three through seven at ten elementary schools and three middle schools. Reading centers in the elementary and middle schools are designed to give intensive individualized instruction in basic reading skills. Students at least one year…

Describes a home reading intervention program for students with real reading difficulties, which has turned many students on to reading, by giving students book bags with three books (at different levels) in each bag for home reading. Discusses developing parent support, outlines contents of 30 book bags, and notes challenges and successes of the…

A study involving 50 seventh-graders enrolled in three remedial reading classes focused on oral reading instruction and contrasted the effects of specific reading strategies with generic encouragement to do well. Students who used a specific oral reading strategy made significantly greater progress in reading that those with generic encouragement…

Discusses what it means to struggle as a reader, lacking competence with reading strategies and lacking confidence in oneself to make meaning with texts. Argues that balance can be found in adolescent reading programs by seeking equilibrium between the visible and invisible aspects of instruction in the development and use of reading strategies.…

Thirty-three middle school students with disabilities were assigned to experimental and control groups. Students trained to identify and generate main idea statements using main idea strategy instruction and a self-monitoring procedure showed increased reading comprehension and outperformed others on posttest and delayed posttest items requiring…

Interviews 18 eighth-graders about their experiences in rereading a book. Outlines what is distinctive about rereading as practiced by middle school students, and its benefits. Advocates rereading as a useful pedagogical tool in the middle grades. (SR)