This report presents the results from an evaluation of the fourth year of the Memphis Striving Readers Project (MSRP) conducted by Research for Better Schools (RBS). MSRP, funded for five years by the United States Department of Education, comprises two interventions aimed at improving adolescent literacy and the quality of literacy instruction…

This study examined how text features (i.e., cohesion) and individual differences (i.e., reading skill and prior knowledge) contribute to biology text comprehension. College students with low and high levels of biology knowledge read two biology texts, one of which was high in cohesion and the other low in cohesion. The two groups were similar in…

The Content-based Reading Approaches (COBRA) framework, constructed by Heerman (2002), was made up of the instructional goals designed for reading-learning integrations in subject matter classrooms. ELL and LD students often fail to have sufficient reading skills to succeed within their different academic subjects, consequently it is important for…

Success in the 21st century, for individuals and societies, requires competence in comprehending and communicating in the academic disciplines--the natural sciences, history, geography, and more. The Read-Write Cycle (RWC) Project, a three year longitudinal research study conducted from 2005-2008 in ten public elementary schools in southern…

The Grade 2 Informational Text Reading Inventory (ITRI) was developed to help early primary students develop the skills necessary to read and use informational text. This booklet contains all the information teachers need to use the Grade 2 ITRI materials, including assessments, mock textbook pages, mini books designed to look like commercial…

The Grade 1 Informational Text Reading Inventory (ITRI) was developed to help early primary students develop the skills necessary to read and use informational text. This booklet contains all the information teachers need to use the Grade 1 ITRI materials, including assessments, mock textbook pages, mini books designed to look like commercial…

As concern over teenagers' reading and writing skills mounts, an Alabama high school shows how to teach literacy in every subject. When Buckhorn joined the reading initiative, its teachers and top administrators attended the state's two-week summer workshop, and were inspired by its vision of literacy instruction across the content areas. But they…

A well-established principle in the literature on learning, which maintains that variability of practice enhances long-term retention, served as the foundation of a summer program intended to ameliorate reading skills in incoming freshmen. During a 4-week period, students received reading instruction in the context of four areas: humanities,…

The authors maintain that developing an awareness of the skills and tasks involved in proficient reading is necessary in the middle grades and that success with these skills and tasks develops through peer interaction and meaningful activity, not through teacher-dominated discussion. To that end, in this column, the authors introduce the…

This practical guide presents inspiring, research-based activities for teaching students in grades K-12 how to read and think critically about informational texts. With five essential types of strategies, seasoned and preservice teachers learn ways to help students select engaging, challenging reading materials; develop their knowledge of history,…

Whereas science teachers in the last century were trained to place empirical activities at the heart of school science (Yore, Bisanz & Hand, 2003) and give relatively less attention to language issues, fundamental literacy (as defined by Norris & Phillips, 2003) is now recognised as having a crucial role in learning science. However, there have…

This article presents a lesson cycle of activities for teaching reading and writing skills for expository text. The lesson cycle consists of four parts: (1) vocabulary words, (2) text structures, (3) modified sentence completion activity, and (4) rewriting text. Sixth- and seventh-grade summer school students were taught to recognize and…

Helping students read science textbooks and other substantive material does not have to interrupt the flow of content delivery. A variety of strategies, both instructive and effective, are available to help students become more competent and independent readers. The lessons in this article have worked well. They all involve participation and can…

Situated within a university-based content literacy course, this article considers the spaces between the curricular realities of middle school and high school classrooms, what we call the "what is," and potential alternative configurations of curriculum and instruction for these classrooms, what we call the "what could be."…

Content area reading is extremely challenging for English language learners (ELLs). Although their English is not fully developed, they are faced with reading subject matter content in English that is typically written in academic language. Reading academic discourse is very challenging for ELLs because it is characterized with complex syntax,…