Many adolescents, especially those with learning disabilities, lack basic word identification skills. Finding motivating instructional techniques to improve word-level reading skills is increasingly difficult as students move through the grades. One technique that holds promise in motivating adolescents involves using song lyrics from their…

Embracing the dynamic nature of English language can help students learn more about all forms of English. To fully engage students, teachers should not adhere to an anachronistic and static view of English. Instead, they must acknowledge, accept, and even use different language forms within the classroom to make that classroom dynamic, inclusive,…

Governments and other stakeholders have become increasingly interested in assessing the skills of their adult populations in order to examine how well prepared they are to meet the challenges of the modern knowledge-based society. The current paper provides a conceptual framework for the assessment of reading component skills in the OECD's…

A national panel urged federal policymakers to "take a more active role" in promoting adolescent reading and writing, and called for nothing short of a "literacy revolution" to keep students in school and ensure they are able to learn the complex material that college and careers will demand of them. The final report of the Carnegie Corporation of…

Spelling error corpora can be collected from students' written essays, homework, dictations, translations, tests and lecture notes. Spelling errors can be classified into whole word errors, faulty graphemes and faulty phonemes in which graphemes are deleted, added, reversed or substituted. They can be used for identifying phonological and…

Collaboration and reflection are critical to effective teaching and student progress in reading. Responding to the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students who struggle in reading is a persistent challenge for teachers, especially those in urban settings. Conversations between literacy coaches and teachers in urban settings provide…

One of the biggest challenges teachers face in today's classrooms is instructing students who are non-native English speakers. Research supports using drama and movement to enhance the literacy development of English language learners. Besides being "fun" learning experiences for children, drama and movement have proven to assist with developing…

Two struggling fourth-grade readers with learning disabilities who have severe deficits in word recognition, comprehension, and reading fluency improve their reading skills using a method that combines intensive word study with the timed repeated reading of poetry. The direct instruction included semantics, morphology, orthography, and…

"Teach Like a Champion" offers effective teaching techniques to help teachers, especially those in their first few years, become champions in the classroom. These powerful techniques are concrete, specific, and are easy to put into action the very next day. Training activities at the end of each chapter help the reader further their…

This paper presents a concise model of literacy assessment based on the "simple view of reading" and the "simple view of writing". The approach targets directly the key skills and knowledge involved in reading, writing and spelling. It stands in contrast to the less precise and potentially more subjective "always-in-context" and "always-authentic"…

Research supports the need for active vocabulary learning across grade levels and subject areas to help increase readers' comprehension of diverse texts that they encounter. Given the increasing emphasis on decoding and reading comprehension, the relative importance of vocabulary instruction has been diminished in recent years. The authors argue…

This paper proposes a technique for teaching decoding of the Arabic language to Arab dyslexic students following the multisensory, systematic, explicit phonics approach and based in part on the Orton-Gillingham approach. This technique emphasizes vocabulary controlled, font-modified, cumulative, color-coded reading materials, and orthographic…

This book brings together some of the world's foremost literacy scholars to discuss how research influences what teachers actually do in the classroom. Chapters describe the current state of knowledge about such key topics as decoding, vocabulary, comprehension, digital literacies, reading disabilities, and reading reform. At the same time, the…

Phonics and fluency have been identified as two essential elements in the effective teaching of reading. Although normally considered two distinct elements of the reading curriculum that are separate, through the use of rhyming poetry both phonics and fluency can be taught in a synergistic and authentic manner. In this article, the authors explore…

High school students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds frequently struggle with the literacy demands of middle and high school curricula. Many students with severe impairments do not have basic phonological awareness and decoding skills. To improve the reading achievement of these students and promote their success in…