We investigated adult-child shared book reading of olfactory books that stimulate the sense of smell through scratch-and-sniff surfaces. We observed ten adult-child dyads reading olfactory books at home and documented the characteristics and quality markers of their olfactory engagement. Drawing on the principles of learning sciences and…

Senior secondary Literature courses in Australia all aim, to various extents, to develop students' critical literacy skills. These aims share emphases on reading, reflecting and responding critically to texts, on critical analysis and critical ideas, and on forming interpretations informed by critical perspectives. Critical literacy is not…

High-quality children's literature, including picturebooks, are important resources in the classroom for students to engage with complex and sometimes concerning contemporary issues. One strategy to involve students in learning about such issues is through the use of metafictive devices, which are literary stratagems that draw readers into knowing…

Mathematical literacy, quantitative literacy, numeracy, matheracy, disciplinary literacy, and content-area literacy are among a plethora of terms used to link mathematics and literacy. In addition to this abundance of terms, the content of the terms is not precise, and in some cases the terms are used interchangeably. I delve into this landscape…

The Wood River Middle School (WRMS) serves approximately 600 students a year. The school is diverse, with roughly half Latinx students and a large English language learner population. The library collection boasts almost 16,000 books. The most popular section? If you combine the manga and graphic novel sections, they win the top prize, with 38% of…

South Carolina's Charter School Act of 1996 was passed for the primary reason of improving education for the state. A part of this improvement would come by way of charter schools providing innovative ways of teaching and learning. In 2017 WCSD was established, in hopes of answering the call of the 1996 Charter School Act by providing innovative…

Research Findings: This study illustrated whether and how ecological environments are associated with language-minority students' (N = 12,500) math and reading development from kindergarten to the eighth grade. Results identified the robust effects of preschool type, kindergarten length, classroom activities, parent-child reading, parent…

Recent scholarship in multiliteracies-oriented pedagogies has advocated for greater attention to fostering 'textual thinking', understood as forms of literacy that consider the complexities of semiotic choices made by authors, and their underlying meanings, rhetorical purposes, and cultural contexts. This kind of engagement with texts calls upon…

There is a relationship between children's ability to formulate theories of mind (i.e., metacognitive hypotheses) about persons or characters in a text and their comprehension of the text. Nevertheless, few studies examine how young children engage their ontological background knowledge to formulate their theories-of-mind. Set in a public library…

This study examined six reading intervention teachers' implementation of the SPELL-Links to Reading and Writing intervention with students in Grades 2 and 3. The purpose was to explore the extent to which teachers who received a one-day training session without ongoing coaching support were able to implement the intervention with fidelity. It also…

English proficiency has become pivotal for university admission, particularly at the CEFR B2 level and IELTS band 6-6.5 across Europe. In Nordic universities, the substantial amount of assigned English reading materials requires a strong command of English reading skills, with vocabulary knowledge being a crucial component. This study explores 309…

Purpose: We report the qualitative findings from a survey of elementary teachers regarding reading instruction. The purpose is to extend on quantitative findings in a previously described survey to gain a more in-depth understanding of Australian elementary teachers' approaches to the literacy block in their schools: how this is used, who makes…

A Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is essential for providing pathways to achievement for everyone. This Spotlight explores key components of effective MTSS implementation and strategies for supporting struggling learners across all grade levels. From identifying the critical skills students need for future job success and addressing stalled…

Educators have many questions about phonics instruction centering on topics including programs, approaches, assessment, transfer, and differentiation. We propose 8 principles to (1) help answer these common questions, (2) tackle current misconceptions, and (3) discuss research-based practices about phonics instruction.

Despite metacognition's profound effects in research classrooms, such research might have a very limited influence on mainstream classrooms. This may stem from a lack of comprehensive and practical pedagogy that classroom teachers can adapt for metacognition instruction as researchers do. To address this problem, this study developed a pedagogy of…