This descriptive case study examined educators' perceptions of the effect of tiered instruction on the reading achievement of kindergarten students. The purpose was to explore and describe current cultural and structural conditions that support or inhibit effective school-level implementation of a Response to Intervention (RtI) model. This study…

Raven Elementary teachers collaboratively adhered to a systematic reading program, administered frequent assessments, and their students' test scores improved over time. Our findings indicate that, though effective for improving certain outcomes, such a tightly designed and narrowly focused system created a limiting learning environment for…

This paper reports on some data on the effects of screen-based interactivity on children's engagement with storybook apps during family shared book reading that were gathered in a 2-year, small-scale ethnographic case study in Spain. Data analysis focuses on the complex interplay between the storybook app's interactive features and the children's…

The purpose of this case study is to describe the challenges one coach faced during the initial implementation of a coaching initiative involving 33 teachers in an urban, high-poverty elementary school. Reading coaches are increasingly expected to play a key role in the professional development efforts to improve reading instruction in order to…

This was a qualitative case study that compared data across six district-level literacy coaches' epistemological and ontological beliefs about how to teach reading. All six coaches were working as a cohort of literacy coaches on the development and implementation of a secondary reading intervention program for seventh-grade struggling readers.…

NCLB and Reading First are negotiated in implementing beginning reading instruction. The article describes and analyzes how two critical conditions for creating opportunity--access to qualified teachers and rigorous academic curriculum--are met by examining the enactment and adaptation of a prescriptive core reading program disproportionately…

This paper argues that literature-centered reading programs, based on the perspective that reading is the process of bringing meaning to print, are in the best interest of the language minority students in the nation's elementary schools. After a review of basal reading systems and language-centered reading programs, the paper describes the…

In this highly informative text, Darrell Morris offers detailed, practical guidance based on decades of hands-on experience as a reading clinician and educator. He demonstrates how to conduct a comprehensive diagnostic assessment; interpret reading scores; and provide individualized instruction that takes each student's specific strengths and…

This book explains the methodologies, techniques, strategies, and knowledge base necessary to achieve a balanced reading program. The book's contributors define the key elements in a balanced reading program and provide guidelines for implementing a balanced instructional program in the classroom. Following an introduction which addresses…

Presents research on reading performance that focused on whole schools. Considers early reading programs in high-poverty, high-performing schools and how these schools allocated resources to develop, implement, and sustain their early reading programs. Identifies practices in specific high-performing, high-poverty schools through case study…

When a visually impaired 3-year-old with a tendency toward poking herself in the eye participated with four sighted peers in a reading program as part of the full day special education program, eye-poking behavior was eliminated and the subject was able to read 25 word cards. (CB)

Using case study methodology, this article describes the consultation process with an urban first-grade teacher who had many students experiencing difficulties with beginning reading. Core components and phases of the consultation process are described. The consultation process is discussed in terms of teachers' craving for concrete suggestions…

Observations of children's writing on the computer include an anecdote concerning a five-year-old's use of a word processor to write a story at the University of South Carolina's Children's Center. Also discussed are general literacy growth and four patterns of risk taking with computer writing. (BB)

A study examined the sources of motivation of adults participating in the adult literacy program at the Bob Steele Reading Center (BSRC) in Hartford, Connecticut. The "life cycle" approach used to explore motivation throughout the stages of the literacy learning process included brief case studies focusing on the importance of socioemotional…

Research suggests that reading is a written language process that is learned naturally in much the same way as oral language. To test this hypothesis, a descriptive, longitudinal study was conducted of the reading development of eight kindergarten and first grade students who showed environmental print awareness but were not considered readers.…