In this paper, we explore the intersection of critical literacy pedagogy, queer pedagogy, and transgender topics by turning our attention to the learning that supported the writing of an acrostic poem about Title IX and transgender students. We examine how this writing, in turn, created additional content and context that spurred others' learning.…

Computer applications readily available to many of today's teachers and students offer new possibilities for teaching and learning. One example of this can be found in the Global Read Aloud (GRA) project. Since its 2010 creation, more than one million PK-12 students from at least 60 countries have reportedly participated in the GRA, an annual…

Teachers can use expository texts to teach academic vocabulary, content knowledge, text structure, and text features. National associations' recommended book lists are often used to identify books for classrooms. Previously we identified expository texts on these lists from 2001-2002 and 2011-2012. The current study explored instructional…

Children normally feel unable or less confident to express their ideas clearly, freely, and critically both orally and in writing when learning a language. Research has demonstrated that children's early exposure to Bloom's Taxonomy levels in stories has a "remarkable power" on them (Dickinson, et al. 2012) and helps develop their…

Background: This small-scale study investigated English vocabulary exposure from graded readers and teacher talk in Grade 3 classrooms in poorly resourced township schools in South Africa. Vocabulary is one of the key building blocks for becoming a fluent reader. Most words are learnt through incidental exposure to oral or written language.…

Literacy is regarded as a fundamental skill for people to communicate successfully in all areas of life. In the light of the poor performance of learners, an investigation concerning reading is imperative to enhance literacy in South Africa. This study explores the use of tablets to enhance English reading among learners in Grade 5 from selected…

Although an abundant literature documents preliterate children's word learning success from shared storybook reading, a full synthesis of the factors which moderate these word learning effects has been largely neglected. This meta-analysis included 38 studies with 2,455 children, reflecting 110 effect sizes, investigating how reading styles, story…

This interdisciplinary study explores the intersection of economic equality, bilingual discussion, and early literacy instruction by examining Korean kindergarteners' discussions about poverty and wealth during read-alouds. As part of a larger qualitative study, the current study was conducted in a kindergarten classroom at the Korean Language…

PIRLS 2016 data from eight education systems were used to examine how teachers from three different language groups differed in their teaching of reading literacy. Teaching reading practices differed substantially between the three linguistic/cultural groups. In English-speaking systems, effective practices for establishing reading literacy seem…

As an elementary school librarian, Sally Smollar has had access to the latest technologies since document scanners were considered cutting edge. Even then, allowing students to scan images to insert into their stories was a game changer. Since those days, Smollar writes that she has never stopped experimenting with various platforms and…

Despite the emphasis on the significance of critical literacy, there has been a startling paucity of studies examining how critical literacy pedagogies can be implemented to preschool bilingual settings. In order to address this gap in the research, this qualitative case study examines the possibilities and challenges of critical literacy in…

This formative and design study examined how the Complex Text Analysis (CTA) instructional approach provided support for first-grade students to increase their comprehension of texts of increasing complexity. The students in the diverse class participated in weekly lessons during which fictional texts were read aloud and analyzed in terms of key…

This article discusses the role picture books play in helping young writers. Third-grade students were read engaging picture books for the sole purpose of noticing and naming different features they encountered during the read-alouds. Students were able to recognize the tools many authors and illustrators use such as onomatopoeia, varied font…

Dual-route theories of reading posit that a sublexical reading mechanism that operates serially and from left to right is involved in the orthography-to-phonology computation. These theories attribute the masked onset priming effect (MOPE) and the phonological Stroop effect (PSE) to the serial left-to-right operation of this mechanism. However,…

This is a companion to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide, "Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade" (ED566956). This guide is organized according to the four recommendations and how-to steps from the WWC practice guide. The activities follow the typical developmental…