Reports a study that assessed the effects of reciprocal teaching on the comprehension of poor reading comprehenders who read nonfiction material in a regular classroom. Heterogeneous reading groups from two elementary classes participated in reciprocal teaching. Data analysis showed there were significant improvements in comprehension that were…

The relationship of syntactic sensitivities to fluency and understanding are usually neglected when discussing reading fluency. The article describes oral reading and interpretation activities in one seventh grade class undertaken to improve comprehension and fluency. It also discusses evaluation methods, such as portfolios and recordings as…

This review of 20 years of literature on sight word instruction for individuals with handicaps examines effectiveness data for procedures teaching word recognition and comprehension. Covered are "errorless procedures," prompt elimination, stimulus fading, time delay, easy to hard discrimination, and trial and error with feedback. Two tables…

Gives guidelines to help teacher produce instructional messages that match students' abilities to understand. The behaviors presented facilitate greater acquisition of teacher talk by focusing student attention, reducing the complexity of the message, leading students to key points that maintain student attention, and aiding in future recall. (SLD)

Discusses the importance of instruction in metacognition, the mental process of observing, evaluating, and making adjustments in one's own thinking behavior to enhance comprehension during a learning activity. Reviews educational programs which have taught metacognitive behaviors and charts a model instructional approach for use in the college…

This article offers the Integrated Strategies Instruction Model as a method for teaching content-area lessons to students with mild disabilities, using a variety of graphic organizers. The model lends itself to both teacher-directed and student-directed learning activities. (DB)

Discusses the use of storytelling by teachers and librarians to promote reading. Topics include folktales; communication through story; oral traditions; learning through story; impact on reading, comprehension, and composition skills; telling/listening interaction; storytelling as a leadership skill; and story and inquiry or discovery learning.…

This article discusses benefits of using literature circles with ELL students to strengthen literacy skills and student confidence. Highlighting one teacher's implementation of literature circles, the authors present a candid examination of areas of initial weakness and describe strategies used for improvements in subsequent "rounds." A discussion…

This article examines studies that have attempted to help increase comprehension of expository text for students who are struggling readers and/or have reading disabilities. In doing so, this review reveals that (a) few studies have explicitly claimed to include these students in their work and (b) future research needs to include larger numbers…

In this article, the authors discuss the plight of three very bright students, who have poor or limited English. The authors discuss how promising practices used to develop content-area reading, writing, and thinking can go a long way toward helping English language learners (ELLs) improve their literacy and learning. They discuss five sets of…

In this study, the author adapted reciprocal teaching strategies for use with her kindergarten students. Using puppets to help model strategies, she implemented a series of lessons that showed students how to retell, ask questions, and predict what would happen in a story that was read aloud. The purpose was to provide students with comprehension…

This study explored the impact of learning a new instructional practice in a US school district that places great value in a statewide student assessment. Grounded Theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory, 2nd Edition, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA)…

The effects of computer-presented automatization exercises in a group of 14 poor readers were assessed in comparison to a matched control group of 14 poor readers that received computer-presented exercises aimed at the use of context for word identification and comprehension. Training took place three sessions a week for 15 minutes per session and…

This study examines the role of curriculum as a vocabulary learning environment by comparing teacher's Large Group Time instruction in two curricula--Creative Curriculum (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2000) and the Doors to Discovery program (2002). Discourse samples were retrieved from the video data of the Large Group Time activity in five Head…

The purpose of this study was to systematically reflect upon my teaching practices, and to investigate the benefits of differentiated instruction using action research methods. This paper outlines the action research process, and is a case study examining the academic, social, and emotional progress of an advanced grade three learner involved in…