This paper reports findings from a multi-year study of the scale-up of Reading Apprenticeship (RA), an approach to improve academic literacy by helping teachers provide the support students need to be successful readers in the content areas. WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI), began developing the program in 1995 and has since reached…

Current National Assessment of Educational Progress results continued their 40-year pattern with two-thirds of U.S. 8th graders not proficient in reading, yet formal reading and literacy instruction ends in elementary school. Lack of reading proficiency can undermine academic progress in high school. Elementary literacy instruction provides…

Evidence indicates that secondary level students are not making adequate reading progress to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) by 2013-2014. According to The Education Trust, reading skills of African American and Latino high school seniors are not commensurate with the reading skills of white middle school students. The 2005…

In Reading Apprenticeships, teachers serve as "master readers" of texts, engaging in collaborative inquiry with students. Reading is demystified through metacognitive conversations that draw on readers' self-knowledge. Academically underperforming students gained an average of 2 years' reading growth in 1 academic year using the…

Provides a facetious look at the declining literacy rate by using a fairy-tale motif to ridicule some of the current practices that are intended to solve the reading problem in the nation's schools. (RB)

Presents strategies for improving student literacy skills within the social studies discipline, focusing on the book, "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl." Includes strategies for prereading (what we Know-what we Want to know- what we Learned (K-W-L) and Anticipation-Reaction guides), during reading (graphic organizers), and post…

Discusses why (given the need and rationale for adolescent assessment, instruction, and support) it has been such a struggle over the years to develop and maintain strong adolescent reading programs. Looks at failures to understand and communicate, and budget battles. Argues that the Adolescent Literacy position statement of the International…

Defines "electronic books," and shares examples of prior research on the use of such environments to improve the reading fluency and comprehension of students with reading difficulties. Presents a taxonomy of the types of supportive resources that have emerged from efforts to design and research the use of electronic books, and presents…

This annotated bibliography contains listings of 7 publications on literacy, 16 on reading, and 14 on writing. These professional materials include books, collections of articles, research reports, proposals, program descriptions, descriptions of teaching methods, dictionaries, teacher guides, and exercises/strategies for the learner. Materials in…

This paper reviews research which indicates that (1) more adults spend more time at job related reading than at any other type of reading; (2) materials written for functional purposes (job manuals, newspapers) are often too difficult for the people who are supposed to read them; (3) secondary English courses focus more on teaching reading and…

Describes Literacy and Technology Hands On, a program of literacy instruction for young people with Down syndrome who have recently left school, which uses a combination of technology and more traditional methods to continue these students' literacy instruction into young adulthood. Discusses the program's rationale, aims, features, theoretical…

Discusses a project and study that focused on literacy acquisition among middle school students from the Dominican Republic attending a school on Manhattan's lower East Side. Describes how a book writing project focusing on "stories from home" engaged students, taught them ways to discuss and ways to think, and fostered their literacy acquisition…

This article questions whether the British National Literacy Strategy is raising the achievement of lower attainers and suggests adaptations, based on a Literacy Acceleration program. Literacy Acceleration is described as providing secondary-age students with reading difficulties with daily, specific teaching and individual attention within groups…

Presents a position paper on adolescent literacy and what adolescents deserve developed by the International Reading Association's Commission on Adolescent Literacy. Outlines some questions and answers about adolescent literacy. Details seven principles for supporting adolescents' literacy growth as they deserve. Lists suggested readings and notes…

A practicum was designed to train staff to improve (over an 8-month period) the literacy and reading skills of 60 delinquent adolescent boys residing in a juvenile correction facility. Most of the boys residing at the training school had poor school histories characterized by reading achievement scores several grade levels below their peers and…