This dissertation is comprised of five distinct chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to Direct Instruction reading interventions as well as an explanation of the challenges experienced by struggling readers identified with emotional disturbances. The next three chapters serve as standalone papers. Chapter 2 is a systematic literature…

English vowels are phonologically and orthographically more difficult than consonants when learning to map speech to print. We sought to determine if teaching young at-risk readers and spellers to use a visual vowel hand sign system to segment spoken words into their component phonemes contributed to improved grapheme-phoneme correspondence…

English language learners (ELLs) need to build competency with the English language quickly, in order to benefit from classroom instruction. Reading Recovery offers theoretical underpinnings which support accelerated language acquisition with valuable applications in a classroom setting. Teachers need to develop language as a meaningful whole,…

The problem that the researcher addressed through this study was that third- to fifth-grade teachers found it challenging to incorporate explicit comprehension strategies to reading in an elementary school in southeastern Virginia. The purpose of the study was to examine third- to fifth-grade teachers' perceptions of and experiences when…

In this article, the authors encourage readers to get their minds IN the gutters--the literal gutters of graphic novels, that is. Gutters, one of many graphic novel text features, provide visual and metacognitive insight readers must use to make meaning as they read. Teachers must provide explicit instruction regarding these features and other…

Some children come to school with a smaller vocabulary than their peers. If children do not have knowledge of the meaning of the words they read in texts, they will fail to comprehend those texts and struggle to keep up with their peers. This is critical because the link between vocabulary and comprehension is very clear (Sticht et al., 1974, as…

Reading difficulties have been associated with limited academic success and related social-emotional outcomes including anxiety and low motivation. Recent research on the educational impact of the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that children with poor reading skills were disproportionally disadvantaged. This growing number of students experiencing…

For this case study (Yin, 2018) dissertation, I used mixed methods (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2017; Guetterman & Fetters, 2018) to investigate how an elementary school special education teacher, who used a direct instruction (di) reading curriculum, incorporated culturally informed practices (CIP) in her small group reading instruction. In…

The demand for confident reading teachers is greater than ever before. To guarantee successful reading instruction, teachers across the nation are being trained in the science of reading, which focuses on explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Large reading initiatives are tirelessly working on…

The author, a former early grades teacher, recounts how she overcome erratic curriculum implementation to find her own way to effective reading instruction. What worked for her was an emphasis on explicit phonics in the context of providing engaging and relevant reading material for her students. "As a matter of educating the whole…

We report on a meta-analysis designed to test the theory that instruction that involves direct teaching of academic vocabulary and teaching strategies to determine the meaning of unknown words develops students' abilities to infer new words' meanings and builds students' overall vocabulary knowledge. We meta-analyzed 39 experimental and…

This study examines the effectiveness of a reading comprehension strategy designed to enhance learning for participants with disabilities who come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Specifically, a multiple probe design was used to examine the effects of a reading comprehension strategy on the summarization skills of English…

According to research by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD; 2000), reading is the single most important skill a child will learn in life. Reading proficiency is a powerful predictor of academic success, on-time graduation, and future earning potential in the workforce. Children who reach adulthood without adequate…

The What Works Clearinghouse™ is a federally funded source of scientific evidence for what works in education. The What Works Clearinghouse aims to disseminate findings from rigorous education research to the education community. One mechanism for accomplishing this aim is the production of practice guides. Panels of national content experts,…

This article explores the 'reading wars' from the perspective of instructional psychology, which focuses on the environmental and instructional factors that facilitate students' progress in learning to read. It draws on research (computational analysis and classroom-based experimental studies) to inform a novel intervention that teaches reading…