This dissertation investigates the efficacy of LitFit, an innovative reading workshop program, in enhancing the reading skills and habits of male high school students in a rural setting. The study addresses the critical issue of lower reading proficiency among male students, a demographic that has historically received limited attention in English…

Reading proficiency is particularly crucial for adolescent students who are expected to adopt and approximate a multitude of authentic literacy practices in several different content areas within the span of a single school day. A large number of adolescent students are failing to master basic levels of reading, and are thus uniquely disadvantaged…

The number of students with reading difficulties is increasing and reading motivation is decreasing. Although serious reading problems can still persist during secondary education, most reading instruction happens in primary schools. In particular, students with learning disabilities and externalising behavioural problems are confronted with…

More knowledge is needed regarding the student factors that impact academic reading and success in college beyond traditional measures of college readiness. This study examined the contributions of student factors specified by the Proficient Academic Reader framework--reading literacy skills, metacognitive reading strategies, and reading…

Reading self-concept is an important predictor of reading comprehension and vice versa. However, the mechanisms that are at work in this relation have yet to be identified. In line with the self-enhancement approach, we propose that in the reading domain, amount of reading, book choice (text difficulty and book length), and intrinsic reading…

Reading motivation may elucidate discrepancies in reading achievement among multilingual high school students whose first language is Spanish. Utilizing a person-centered approach to investigate underlying reading motivation profiles among N = 174 adolescent native Spanish speakers (NSS), analyses yielded three latent profiles of reading…

iSTART-E is a web-based intelligent tutor developed for Spanish-speaking students to improve their reading comprehension through self-explanation strategy training. This study examined the effects of a blended comprehension strategy intervention on students' reading comprehension skill. Chilean high school students (N = 22) completed nine iSTART-E…

In a high-school reading class, the author used Reader's Theater as an instructional and motivational strategy for underachieving students. This action research focused on the extent to which implementing Reader's Theater motivated students to read and improve their reading skills. Consistent increases in scores for all students occurred over the…

Research findings on the presence of a therapy dog in the classroom are summarized. The authors reviewed 30 articles, book chapters, and other sources on the topic of the various uses of dogs in classrooms, published between 2001 and 2017. Ages studied ranged from 3 years to adolescence (high school). In our analysis, three categories of…

This study explores the relationship between academic achievement and reading motivation among adolescent boys. We seek to understand (1) if motivational construct scores change meaningfully over time, (2) what relationship exists between the achievement scores and reported reading motivation, and (3) if students who report higher reading…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the impact of the READ 180 reading intervention program upon the affective and cognitive reading skills of 21 struggling ninth grade at-risk students at a Title I high school in Southern California. There was minimal qualitative analysis of the READ 180 program at the secondary level…

Lack of reading motivation impedes upper elementary and secondary school students' willingness to improve critical reading skills and strategies to be successful in school. Struggling readers often show a negative attitude towards reading tasks and manifest low motivation to read. Although the importance of motivation is clear, there is limited…

Although reading is a vital component of academic, career, and social success, the majority of adolescents struggle to read proficiently. As a result, there has been increased attention on reading instruction for older adolescents and on what programs, methods, and tools are highly effective in improving their reading achievement. Since motivation…

This article is based on a qualitative study that explored the impact reading had on the lives of two female students who attained exemplary results in their final year of high school. The reading practices of these two high achieving students provided data rich information. Both students were academically successful in completing their Victorian…

As college and workplace success becomes increasingly dependent on reading, parents and educators have become more interested in how to engage students in reading. Teachers at a rural Georgia high school have reported that students are reluctant to engage in academic reading. Guided by previous research on the factors that promote or discourage…