Teachers are faced with a dilemma when they know what good teaching is but feel pressure from their colleagues and administrators to use published test preparation materials to teach reading and writing. However, effective instructional practices and mandated testing demands can coexist if teachers choose methods that not only provide authentic…

To investigate the influence of an innovative math fluency intervention, 36 middle-school students were randomly assigned to either an experimental (the Detect, Practice, Repair [DPR]) or control condition (reading intervention). After covarying pretest scores, the DPR treatment produced a significantly higher (p = 0.016) adjusted mean (M) math…

The engagement model of reading development suggests that instruction improves students' reading comprehension to the extent that it increases students' engagement processes in reading. We compared how Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) (support for cognitive and motivational processes in reading), strategy instruction (support for…

Indeed, for more than a century, most Western nations have made school compulsory in order to teach all children, and it was widely believed that compulsory schooling would eradicate illiteracy and guarantee progress. However, this approach was questioned by a historical study of elementary schooling. Egil Johansson explained in his study how all…

This paper describes a comprehensive set of studies designed to assess the potential for commercial reading programs to teach reading in science. Specific questions focus on the proportion of selections in the programs that contain science and the amount of science that is in those selections, on the genres in which the science is portrayed, on…

Students and teachers at Hand Middle School in Columbia, South Carolina, were in the midst of a two-year, comprehensive renovation and construction project in which some sections of their 75-year-old, historic building were being renovated and new sections added. When parts of the school were boarded up and oversized machinery first moved onto…

Tess is a joyful eight-year old girl with epilepsy, frontal lobe dysfunction, and dyspraxia, as well as delays in language, fine motor, and gross motor skills. However, despite her disabilities, Tess happily embraces life. With assistance from a few support professionals, Tess currently functions successfully in a regular education second grade…

Nearly four years after a front-page story in "The New York Times" sparked a fierce debate by suggesting that charter school students nationally were lagging academically behind their peers in regular public schools, the national testing program that informed the controversy has generated far more data for researchers and advocates to scrutinize.…

Like teachers in many urban school districts with large numbers of disadvantaged children, the faculty at New Holland Core Knowledge Academy strives to build the foundational skills necessary for later academic success. At New Holland, however, content is king. While many schools have narrowed the curriculum since Congress passed the No Child Left…

In response to the challenge of meeting the needs of today's learners, teachers must know how to teach and facilitate new literacies and instructional technologies. This article introduces the concept of an electronic reading workshop (ERW), in which participants read eBooks, respond to literature in digital response journals, participate in…

The body of knowledge on critical components of reading instruction is broad and deep with phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension serving as building blocks for literacy. The importance of fluent reading (i.e., with speed, accuracy, and proper expression, as well as comprehension) in the formula for success is widely…

Students learn mathematics more effectively and more deeply when reading and writing is directed at learning mathematics. Although reading and writing in mathematics may necessitate more skills and practice to master, the mathematical learning derived from reading and writing mathematics far outweighs the burden it places on teachers and students.…

The purpose of this paper is to investigate students' attitudes towards the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a reading skills course offered at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. To this end, 30 first year students of the foreign language education (FLE) department followed a four-week component of an…

Not too long ago, on a visit to two sixth-grade classrooms, the author saw very clearly the challenge teachers have before them when they try to differentiate reading. In both classrooms, 11-year-olds who read like fourth graders shared tables with classmates who read like the average ninth grader--a five-year span. How teachers approach this…

The author's experiences in using children's literature to engage her students in mathematics are described in this article. Using the book "The Wolf's Chicken Stew", the author's class participated in an interactive read-aloud, graphed favorite foods from the story, and finally followed a recipe to bake chocolate chip cookies. Reasons for making…