Students who have problems comprehending textual material tend to experience failing grades, peer rejection, and even social isolation. Furthermore, students with poor reading comprehension demonstrate poor academic performance in all subjects, not due to difficulty in learning specific subject content (i.e., math, history, etc.), but rather their…

Systematically observing instruction for students with learning disabilities (LD) provides information regarding the quality of school-based interventions, allocation of instructional time, and other implementation variables associated with student outcomes. In this synthesis, observation studies of reading and mathematics instruction from 2000 to…

The authors report findings from a systematic observational study of middle school educators (Grades 6-8) in two states who provided reading interventions within Tier 2 and Tier 3 of a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. Intervention sessions were coded and analyzed to understand (a) the frequency and type of evidence-based strategies…

Reading is conceptualized as a hierarchy of component skills where lower order emergent literacy skills set the foundation for higher order reading skills such as fluency and comprehension. Approximately 20% of readers struggle within this hierarchical process (Fielding, Kerr, & Rosier, 2007). Struggling readers are susceptible to the Matthew…

Members of a site of the California Writing Project conducted the study in this article in partnership with a large, urban, low-SES school district where 93% of the students speak English as a second language and 69% are designated Limited English Proficient. Over an eight-year period, a relatively stable group of 55 secondary teachers engaged in…

In this book, the author suggests that to truly learn, students should be puzzled about new knowledge. Question-finding, the unique strategy described in the book, fosters this learning by leading adolescent students to probe the multiple meanings of text and ask challenging, open-ended questions. Focus units illustrate how teachers can use…

Describes a project in which different kinds of pictures were used to promote children's thinking and language skills. (FL)

The research reported here investigated primary school pupils' use of reading strategies. The study differed from most of the previous studies on reading strategies in that (1) the participants were young bilinguals in multicultural Singapore; (2) the data were examined within the Student Approaches to Learning (SAL) framework developed by John…

Reports on programs and activities designed to teach thinking skills either as a separate school subject or as a strand in a content area. (FL)

Describes a highly effective reading program that focuses on learning strategies and the thinking process. (RB)

Argues that strategies for overcoming reading comprehension problems should contain the elements of cognitive and metacognitive training. Advocates a reading/learning/study strategy which involves systematic and deliberate instruction stressing increased comprehension by demonstration and guided practice followed by independent application of the…

Describes 10 categories of inferences and proposes a three-step procedure for teaching students to make inferences while reading. (HOD)

Notes that students' comprehension and interest increase when they talk about how to read, draw inferences, and answer inferential questions. (FL)

Examines word recognition through a research review indicating that words are only one of many units that are processed during reading. Discusses features that occur within words but retain significance only across text and explores some of the cuing systems of printed language used by beginning and skilled readers at both the word level and…

Concludes that intermediate grade students were better able to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words when (1) contextual clues were provided, (2) students were older, (3) the clues were in synonym rather than inference form, and (4) the contextual clues were closer to the unfamiliar words. (FL)