When educational policies require pre-service teacher practicum mentors to continuously implement a mandated scripted reading curriculum, limits are placed on pre-service teachers observing only these reading instruction methods. Novice teachers, who are developing their reading pedagogy, need the opportunity to explore a variety of methods…

The 2017 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) findings indicate that only 37% of the nation's twelfth graders are at or above proficiency in reading and the average reading score for students with disabilities is under the basic skill level. Consequently, high school teachers are faced with developing targeted interventions to address…

Improving reading comprehension for middle school students with disabilities and others who struggle with reading, referred to here as striving readers, is challenging. Formal reading instruction typically shifts from skills acquisition to application in middle and high school, providing inadequate support in the skills for comprehension (Chall,…

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit challenges with reading development. Evidence-based interventions and specialized approaches to reading instruction are currently being implemented across educational contexts for learners with ASD (Machalicek et al., 2008), yet there is limited understanding of how core ASD features may…

Early literacy skills are key indicators of later reading success. Without the development of these prerequisite skills during early childhood, children are at risk for reading difficulties in elementary grades and beyond. By third grade, the gap between expected reading performance and actual reading proficiency is extensive and remains into…

Reader's Theater is a transformative and influential instructional tool for reading with far-reaching benefits for all students. Teachers are critical players in the use of Readers Theater in classroom; the effects of Reader's Theater are a direct result of a teacher's involvement. These effects include an increase in word recognition, fluency,…

The study aimed to investigate the effects of Reader's Theater on EFL learners' English reading comprehension. The roles of English learning anxiety and learning styles in the RT instruction were also explored. Mixed methods research was conducted to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data. The subjects were 11 graders in a senior…

An essential element in teaching children to effectively comprehend text is the use of teacher-led think alouds. The article follows a semester-long project with 31 inservice teachers, who planned, implemented, transcribed, and reflected upon think aloud lessons to build student comprehension. Through multiple exposures to think alouds, teachers…

This study examined the implementation of a scripted phonics program taught by paraprofessionals in kindergarten classrooms in a local school district. Two research questions were investigated: (a) Can paraprofessionals with no prior training in phonics effectively implement a scripted phonics program for struggling kindergartners? and (b) Did…

Fluency in reading is critical for becoming a successful reader and strongly correlates with reading comprehension. Fluency in reading refers to appropriate reading speed, accurate word recognition, appropriate phrasing, and appropriate expression when reading orally. Reader's Theater (RT) is a reading instructional method that requires readers to…

This article explores the experiences and literacy practices of an adolescent boy enrolled in an academic support class, in which students received an open-ended invitation to respond to S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders" with the software programme Comic Life. In constructing this "telling case", we highlight how traditional…

This paper describes the theoretical framework, as well as the development and testing of the intervention, "Comprehension Tools for Teachers" (CTT), which is composed of eight component interventions targeting malleable language and reading comprehension skills that emerging research indicates contribute to proficient reading for…

This paper describes the theoretical framework, as well as the development and testing of the intervention, Comprehension Tools for Teachers (CTT), which is composed of eight component interventions targeting malleable language and reading comprehension skills that emerging research indicates contribute to proficient reading for understanding for…

Two successful and two struggling beginning readers were studied with the goal of understanding how beginning readers of varying ability levels make sense of instruction in learning to read. Through interviews, classroom observations, and the collection of artifacts from home and school, the author explored meanings constructed by the students…

Many educators are reluctant to use scripted instruction, reporting that scripts are mechanical in nature and only appropriate for low-level skills. This study sought to investigate the impact of a supplemental program's script on the rate of on-task and off-task instructional opportunities offered by the instructor for students to practice the…