On April 8, 2016 when the class was discussing "digital literacy," a shocking news story from London AP intrigued us. The news was about a brief text message delivered by Ahmed, a refugee Afghan boy of 6-year old. His text message flashed on the cellphone of Liz Clegg, a volunteer at a migrant camp in France. Clegg and other volunteers…

Abracadabra (ABRA) is a 20-week online literacy program composed of phonic fluency and comprehension activities based around a series of age-appropriate texts. Four 15-minute sessions per week are delivered by a teaching assistant (TA) to groups of three to five pupils. This report summarizes the findings of a randomized controlled trial assessing…

This study addresses the effectiveness of a widely used core reading program that reflects the research-based practices recommended by the National Reading Panel. This and other similar programs are increasingly used to prevent reading difficulties and ensure that all children are reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade.…

Acquisition of language concepts by pre-service teachers (PSTs) is likely influenced by university coursework and field experiences, but little research has examined how. Knowledge of phonics and phonological awareness and confidence to teach reading were surveyed among primary PSTs at one New South Wales university, most in second year following…

This quantitative study examined the data collected from the students who participated in a reading intervention and compared their growth rate after one year of implementation to their growth rate prior to the intervention. The study was conducted in an affluent school corporation located in Indiana. The study evaluated the effectiveness of this…

This study examined the effects of a phonics-based intervention on the reading outcomes of non-Spanish-speaking English Learners (ELs). Thirty-six K-3, primarily Karen- and Hmong-speaking ELs were randomly assigned to receive a modified version of Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (K-PALS; Fuchs et al., 2001b) combined with…

This bestselling book provides indispensable tools and strategies for explicit, systematic phonics instruction in K-3. Teachers learn effective ways to build students' decoding skills by teaching letter-sound relationships, blending, word building, multisyllabic decoding, fluency, and more. The volume is packed with engaging classroom activities,…

Manitoba's reading scores continue to be under scrutiny. A national report, the PCAP, indicated that Manitoba ranked last in the country in reading (O'Grady & Houme, 2014). This literature review records the author's investigation into ways to support struggling readers in the early years classroom. Research articles were reviewed and books…

Cross-language transfer is the extent, if any, to which phonological awareness in L1 facilitates learning to read in L2. This has been an area of investigation wherein researchers looked into the orthographic and phonological component processing skills L2 learners develop and utilize to facilitate word recognition. Given the difference between…

Although reading fluency has been dismissed and overlooked as an important component of effective reading instruction, the author makes that case that fluency continues to be essential for success in learning to read. Moreover, many students who struggle in reading manifest difficulties in reading fluency. After defining reading fluency, the…

Pre-service special educators' Malay word structure knowledge was assessed through their analysis of words. A total of 69 participants analysed a vocabulary list based on a set of criteria formulated from the Malay language word structure. Results indicated that they were able to count syllables and phonemes, and identify types of affixations;…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of the types and occurrences of explicit instructional moves recommended for teaching five essentials of effective reading instruction in grades 1, 3, and 5 core reading program teachers' editions in five widely marketed core reading programs. Guided practice was the most frequently…

Play is well documented as a purposeful, authentic way for children to engage in literacy practices. Although the benefits of play are widely agreed upon, there is some debate regarding its place in school. In fact, play is often marginalized in place of "back to the basics" language instruction. For kindergartners, this means word…

"Academy of READING"® is an online program that aims to improve students' reading skills using a structured and sequential approach to learning in five core areas--phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) identified 38 studies of "Academy of READING"® for adolescent…

This paper describes a randomised controlled trial conducted with 10 secondary schools in England to evaluate the impact and feasibility of Fresh Start as an intervention to help new entrants with low prior literacy. Fresh Start is a synthetic phonics programme for small groups of pupils, here implemented three times per week over 22 weeks. The…