Just as the mission of the library program evolves from the school's mission, the goals of school librarians' curriculum and teaching evolves from the needs of administrators and classroom teachers. In the 21st-century, these needs are framed by standards such as Common Core State Standards (CCSS). School librarians also have the American…

Despite evidence that the maze is a reliable measure of reading comprehension, existing research suggests potential problems with the manner in which maze probes are developed. Specifically, research suggests students may be able to respond accurately to a large portion of target words without having to comprehend what they are reading. The…

This study reports an investigation on the effects of directed vocabulary and whole class instruction on improving students' vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. Fifty-eight seventh grade students participated in the study, and a pre-test/post-test experimental design was employed. The results did not indicate any statistically…

While attentional models of SLA postulate attention as crucial for learning to take place (e.g., Robinson, 1995b; Schmidt, 1990, 2001; Tomlin & Villa, 1994), the role that awareness or lack thereof plays remains debatable. Indeed, the studies that have empirically addressed the construct of unawareness reveal conflicting results (e.g.,…

The purpose of this study is to answer this question: Which is academically superior for young children, full-or half-day kindergarten? This inquiry-oriented case study was designed to compare and contrast students who attended half-day versus full-day kindergarten programs in a suburban public school district. The study is necessary because the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of the picture plus discussion (PPD) intervention on the comprehension abilities of high school students with moderate intellectual disability when read a variety of expository texts aloud. A multiple probe single subject design was employed to measure the effect of the intervention across three…

The purpose of this intervention study was to test the use of a reading comprehension strategy with students who are deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH) in monitoring and resolving problems with comprehension. The strategy, named Comprehension Check and Repair (CC&R), was designed for D/HH students who struggle with comprehension, despite at least…

Classroom teachers are provided instructional recommendations for teaching reading from their adopted core reading programs (CRPs). Explicit instruction elements or what is also called instructional moves, including direct explanation, modeling, guided practice, independent practice, discussion, feedback, and monitoring, were examined within CRP…

The use of marginal reading glosses by 18 second language (L2) learners is examined through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of audiotaped think-aloud protocols. How these readers interact with the glosses is identified and divided into five categories or gloss interactions. Examples from each are presented. The primary research question…

Children born preterm are at risk for deficits in language and reading. They are also at risk for injury to the white matter of the brain. The goal of this study was to determine whether performance in language and reading skills would be associated with white matter properties in children born preterm and full-term. Children born before 36 weeks…

Given the rising prominence of nonstandard varieties of English around the world (Jenkins 2007), learners of English as a second language are increasingly called on to communicate with speakers of both native and non-native nonstandard English varieties. In many classrooms around the world, however, learners continue to be exposed only to…

Supporting the reading development of college students is the responsibility of all professors. As experts in the field, with experience navigating and interpreting readings in a particular discipline, professors are obligated to think of themselves as master artisans apprenticing their students to the craft of reading. Texts in all subject areas…

The role of the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in semantic memory is now firmly established. There is still controversy, however, regarding the specific role of this region in processing various types of concepts. There have been reports of patients suffering from semantic dementia (SD), a neurodegenerative condition in which the ATL is damaged…

In two studies, we investigated how skilled readers use contextual and morphemic information in the process of incidental vocabulary acquisition during reading. In Experiment 1, we monitored skilled readers' eye movements while they silently read sentence pairs containing novel and known English compound words that were either semantically…

Language profiles of children with autistic disorder and intellectual disability (n = 36) were significantly different from the comparison groups of children with intellectual disability (n = 26) and typically developing children (n = 34). The group low-functioning children with autistic disorder obtained a higher mean score on expressive than on…