From phonological processing to brain research to orthographic mapping to self-teaching hypothesis, "Shifting the Balance" cuts through the rhetoric (and the sciencey science) to offer readers a practical guide to decision-making about beginning reading instruction. The authors honor the balanced literacy perspective while highlighting…

In this volume, two notable scholars trace the monumental shifts in theory, research, and practice related to reading education and literacy, with particular attention to what they consider the central goal of literacy-making meaning. Each section describes a specific epoch, including a brief snapshot of how the reader of that period is envisioned…

Many teachers encounter low efficacy resulting in difficulty providing effective instruction, low levels of job satisfaction, and a greater chance of depression (Bandura, 1993; Cansoy & Parlar, 2018; Chung & Chen, 2018). The purpose of this qualitative interpretive phenomenological study was to explore the efficacy experiences of…

This quantitative, archival, causal-comparative study was deeply rooted in Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development theory and addressed the problem of lacking morphological instructional practices in the classrooms, which has ultimately produced a language learning gap. The specific problem requiring a research response was that the best…

To make progress in improving students' reading comprehension, we need to rethink the very nature of reading comprehension -- it's not a skill and it requires background knowledge. James Kim and Mary Burkhauser explain that, to help students apply what they learn from one reading task to another reading task, educators should consider developing…

Informational reading instruction plays an important role in early literacy but has traditionally received less emphasis than literary text in elementary classrooms. This mixed-methods study illuminates trends from observed reading instruction of 77 first-year elementary teachers, drawing on data from 761 lesson segments scored with the Protocol…

Students are struggling to read proficiently at alarming rates. Although pedagogical reading philosophies have varied over the past decades, there continues to be reading deficiencies; this is especially prevalent in our students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Teachers struggle with best practices of reading instruction as well…

This book discusses how to approach critical literacy in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. It responds to the concerns of educators who get enthusiastic about teaching critical literacy, but become perplexed when they start reading about its theories. This causes some to avoid it altogether and leads others to argue for practicing it…

Educators' reading comprehension instructional practices have been identified as 1 of the factors that contribute to learners' poor reading comprehension performance. To this end, several studies were conducted to identify and analyse educators' practices while teaching reading comprehension. As a result, the aim of the study reported on here was…

Policy, mandating early screening for dyslexia and use of specific interventions, is increasing throughout the United States. The authors designed a descriptive case study to learn what impact policies have on practice and how literacy specialists, trained in both comprehensive and structured literacy approaches, provide support for students. Data…

The objectives of the study were to study the effectiveness of the SQ4R technique in enhancing grade 11 students' critical reading and to investigate the students' satisfaction with the SQ4R technique as a model of learning management in a reading class. A quasi-experimental approach was selected, and one group of participants was employed. The…

Not all children enter school with the same skill set. Teachers of young children know this. Despite this, schools prescribe curriculum and pacing guides as well as assessments that may fit only a subset of students' instructional levels. Teachers are left to determine the best way to meet the student and mandated requirements. Teachers from two…

Dialogic instruction, a form of instruction that engages students in meaningful and substantive classroom dialogue, has been shown to benefit students in many ways. However, few studies on dialogic instruction have focused on the role and agency of classroom teachers as they navigate and negotiate the vagaries of classroom talk, especially in…

Sixty-eight percent of fourth-grade public school students in the United States performed below the National Assessment of Educational Progress proficient level on the 2022 reading assessment, yet Massachusetts fourth-grade students demonstrated better reading outcomes. The problem addressed through this study was a lack of knowledge regarding the…

This qualitative case study investigated L2 readers' semester-long experiences with web-based pre-class peer discussions (WPPD). Data were collected from a university L2 reading course and included field notes on 21 students' web-based learning activities and in-class learning activities, interviews with these students, and their reflections.…