With the development and institution of the Common Core Standards, teachers must be prepared to integrate content areas such as social studies within the language arts curriculum. Teachers following the suggestions of the Common Core Standards should develop practical and meaningful strategies within their classrooms that encourage and support…

Methods for facilitating students' standards-based consumer literacy are addressed via the use of problem solving with food and product labels. Fifth graders will be able to: (1) provide detailed analysis of food and product labels; (2) understand large themes, including production, distribution, and consumption; and (3) explore consumer…

College professors seek to create intellectual experiences that free students from false perceptions and incomplete truths. This article explores one curricular decision and an accompanying pedagogical approach which, the authors argue, facilitates such a liberating experience. In the online environment of WebCT, students post their reactions to…

Previous research suggests that multiple representations can improve science reading comprehension. This facilitation effect is premised on the observation that readers can efficiently integrate information in text and diagram formats; however, this effect in young readers is still contested. Using eye-tracking technology and sequential analysis,…

This study considers how pre-service teachers envision disciplinary literacy through an online social bookmarking project. Thirty secondary pre-service teachers participated in the project through an undergraduate literacy course. Online bookmarks and post-project reflections were collected and analyzed using a constant comparative approach to…

Finding materials to help students make connections is difficult for many teachers across all grade levels. Traditionally, the textbook is the primary resource for instruction. Textbooks, however, do not naturally support students in making connections across texts. To do this, teachers must find other resources. Finding other resources is…

In a recent article published in this journal, Shanahan, Shanahan, and Misischia investigated the differences in how chemists, historians, and mathematicians read text specific to their disciplines. Unlike the chemists and historians, the pair of mathematicians in this study did not consider sources when reading and evaluating their text. In this…

This factorial quasi-experimental 2 x 2 study aimed to corroborate the effect of PRWR strategy, compared to Translation and Reading Aloud, on students' academic content-area reading comprehension as observed from their English proficiency. This study also examined the interaction between the strategy and English proficiency. Data were obtained…

The present study examined middle school teachers' perceptions of literacy demands in their disciplines and specific literacy strategies they used to teach their disciplines. The eight participants in this multiple case study included 2 middle school teachers from each of 4 disciplines (i.e., English/language arts, science, social studies, and…

It is essential for middle school leaders to develop and promote school-wide literacy models, organizational structures that have a significant impact on the learning environment for all students in their building. However, school-wide literacy models can be difficult to implement and sustain over time. Drawing from an Office of Special Education…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences between the amounts of time that U.S. and Chilean students spend on conventional academic reading, extracurricular reading, and Facebook and also to report the types of materials they prefer to read. The study surveyed students in the United States (n = 1,265) and Chile (n = 2,076)…

This article describes the development of an instrument to measure teachers' knowledge of vocabulary development and instruction, the Teacher Knowledge of Vocabulary Survey (TKVS). This type of knowledge has become increasingly important as all classroom teachers are expected to help students meet language and literacy standards that include…

The number of English learners (ELs) in U.S. schools continues to increase rapidly. Schools often struggle with the issue of providing English language instruction that does not interfere with ELs' content instruction. Many instructors are turning to coteaching: a content teacher and an EL teacher working together to meet the English and content…

In this article, the authors provide a synopsis of the 2014 Children's Literature Assembly (CLA) Workshop. The Workshop explored how fiction and nonfiction children's and young adult's literature create opportunities for in-depth learning in the content areas. Participants had the opportunity to hear the stories of authors and illustrators of…

Recognizing the importance of vocabulary for comprehension, Wilhelm asks two key questions: "which words do I teach and how should I teach them?" Through years of trial and error, Wilhelm has adopted these principles to answer "which words": teach "important" words students will see and use again; words necessary to conceptual understanding; words…