Foundational skills are often viewed as necessary components for automaticity in reading and writing. In this study, we draw on teacher interviews to explore what secondary English/language arts teachers identify as necessary language for successful school writing. Findings suggest that teachers believe White mainstream English is a necessary…

Reading consists of many interconnected skills. Research recommends that beginning readers focus on a set of basic skills, specifically referred to as the "foundational skills" (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGACBP], Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010). Essential to forming the base for…

The purpose of the current study is to evaluate Turkey's International Student Assessment Program (PISA) reading literacy scores in view of Turkish Language teachers. For this reason the study was designed as a case study, one of qualitative approach. In the research, the data were collected from 15 Turkish language teachers through interviews. An…

A new reading can lose effectiveness if not implemented consistently by all teachers. The purpose of this study was to understand how first grade teachers perceived implementation of the Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA)reading program and what challenges they encountered when using the program. Three research questions were explored in the…

Why aren't English teachers creative writers? Why is there little to no emphasis on creative writing in ELA classes? What are the implications of popular media portrayals of the writer on students' perception of writing? In my classroom practice, I encouraged a variety of writing styles that allowed students to grow as readers, but, more…

With some innovations brought by the age of technology and science, storytelling has also gained different dimensions. Digital storytelling has emerged with the addition of elements such as sound, video, image, effect and music to traditional storytelling and sharing these stories on digital media. In this study, it was aimed to determine the…

Purpose: This study aims to understand the supports and challenges to using disciplinary and antiracism lenses when teaching with informational texts in middle grades English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyzes teacher talk in four virtual sessions with four middle grades ELA teachers in one school…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for ELA/Literacy, and the standardized assessments that test students on these standards, focus on students' ability to navigate online text and require students to comprehend, analyze, and make inferences about complex texts in both print and digital format. While the ability to read digital text with a high…

This article presents discourse analyses of two teachers' statements about the economic payoff of studying English in the United States' high schools. Specifically, the article examines how English teachers construe reading as an economic asset that can be developed in schools and used on the job. Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of field and capital…

The location of this study is Bulldog Elementary School (BES) (pseudonym) in Suburban School District (SSD) (pseudonym). According to the Read to Succeed Act (2016), students must read on grade level by the end of third grade. Therefore, the students reading achievement level is the problem of practice. This action research study describes the…

The value of preparing students for college, careers, and civic life is a shared outcome of social studies and language arts teachers. This study explores how developing content and civic literacy to these ends can be fortified through language arts and social studies teacher collaboration in source-based planning and teaching. Although numerous…

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested in the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) as one strategy to support teachers' and students' transition to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English language arts. This report provides an early look at the implementation of LDC in eighth-grade history/social studies and science classes in two…

Research continues to suggest that adolescents struggle with reading, indicating that much work remains to ensure that all students read at levels consistent with the skills required for academic achievement (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). This article investigates whole class choral reading (WCCR) within the context of a sixth-grade language arts…

This case study of reading activity in third-grade bilingual classrooms at a state-sanctioned "successful" school examines the influences of the California accountability framework--Proposition 227, No Child Left Behind, and the federal Reading First program--on shifting beliefs and practices around what "counts" as reading.…

This paper reports on Year 1 of a two-year study of implementing new literacies strategies into social studies and English/language arts content areas in two low-performing middle schools (grades 6-8). Situated within a New Literacies Studies framework, the study addressed three overarching questions: (1) What are teachers' and students'…