The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of learning various types of words in biology on students' reading comprehension, vocabulary performance, and science content knowledge. The study involved 315 ninth grade biology students who were placed in one of four groups and spent two weeks for ten minutes per day working on independent…

In this chapter we discuss the essential components of special education for ELLs with learning disabilities. We focus on the importance of culturally responsive teachers implementing culturally and linguistically relevant instruction in all settings. Within this framework we emphasize the need for ELLs with LD to have a supportive classroom…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of explicit direct instruction and cooperative learning on reading comprehension in fourth grade students. A quasi-experimental design was used. There were six cognitive and three affective measures used to collect quantitative data. Cognitive measures included California State Test scores,…

The present study proposes a tripartite model of L2 reading strategy use, reading motivations, and general learner beliefs by examining the relationships among them in an L2 context. Reading strategy instruction was performed for 360 first-year university students enrolled in a reading-based course, in expectation of affecting their motivations…

Past research has shown that readers often fail to notice conflicts in text. In our present study we investigated whether accessing information from multiple documents instead of a single document might alleviate this problem by motivating readers to integrate information. We further tested whether this effect would be moderated by source…

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is the latest effort to reform education through standards. This article examines how the Standards promise to prepare students for the changing world of the 21st century, yet do not consider the changing nature of literacy--especially the centrality of the Internet as a 21st century text, and online…

As far as academic reading comprehension is concerned, a network of linguistic skills and strategies operate in a complex and integrated matter. Since it is impossible to examine all the factors affecting reading comprehension all at once, it is more reasonable to compare and contrast the predictive effects of specific variables against each other…

Modeled in this column is the teaching of a text mapping routine that supports students reading and remembering the salient features of the text. The authors renamed the story mapping technique "text mapping plus" because they found that as students added relational words and graphics to their maps their retells of both fiction and nonnarrative…

We employed semi-structured tests to determine whether children with autism produce and comprehend deictic (person-centred) expressions such as "this"/"tilde" "here"/"there" and "come"/"go", and whether they understand atypical non-verbal gestural deixis in the form of directed head-nods to indicate location. In Study 1, most participants…

We provide a response to a commentary by Wiers and Stacy (2010) on our model of the alcohol-behavior link (Moss & Albery, 2009). Whereas Wiers and Stacy generally supported our model, they took issue with our conceptualization of the alcohol expectancy construct. We address the major concerns of Wiers and Stacy by demonstrating that our own view…

Adults of varying reading comprehension skill learned a set of previously unknown rare English words (e.g., "gloaming") in three different learning conditions in which the type of word knowledge was manipulated. The words were presented in one of three conditions: (1) orthography-to-meaning (no phonology); (2) orthography-to-phonology (no…

The purpose of this research was to analyze how 24 graduate students perceived the study group experience and how study groups fostered a change in their knowledge and teaching of comprehension. Data sources included pre-post questionnaires, text concepts, International Reading Association process form, facilitator logs, and post-survey. Data were…

There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy. In 2000, "How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition" was published and its…

The present paper addresses the continuous need for methodological reflection on how to validate inferences made on the basis of test scores. Validation is a process that requires many lines of evidence. In this article we discuss the potential of eye tracking methodology in process-oriented reading test validation. Methodological considerations…

At a time when league tables can be everything, examination grades matter. Perhaps more than many would admit, the cost is a lack of understanding. The new edition of this book provides practical advice about how to support understanding in both children and adults. It is for all teachers and lecturers, experienced or otherwise, who want learners…