Although identified as a critical component of proficient reading in the primary grades, reading fluency (word recognition accuracy, automaticity, and prosody) is often viewed as less important beyond the early stages of reading acquisition. In the present study, 108 ninth-grade students were assessed to explore the relationships among word…

The language teens use in digital spaces--from social network posts to instant message chats to text messages--often does not adhere to Standard Written English (SWE). Their digital writing involves a combination of written and conversational languages and often has a digital thumbprint that distinguishes the writer. As a means to understand this…

Drawing upon notions of symbolic representation and transcultural repositioning, this study uses visual and critical discourse analyses to examine a multimodal photo essay created by seventh- and eighth-grade immigrant youth in an English as a New Language (ENL) class. Collectively titled "I am from 'aquí' and 'allá'"…

Framed in theories of social semiotics, this descriptive multiple case study examined six middle school teachers' use of gestures during one school year as they each taught two different subject areas: earth science, language arts, mathematics, and/or social studies. The data, which included field notes and photographs from 354 lessons and…

This meta-analysis examines the effectiveness of a group of instructional approaches (i.e., cooperative, collaborative, and peer tutoring) at improving literacy outcomes for English language learners. Main effects analyses of a sample of 28 experimental and quasi-experimental studies reveal that peer-mediation is more effective for ELLs than…

In 2006, The Wyoming state legislature allocated monies to fund Instructional Facilitators (IFs) in schools around the state. This interview study, developed through situational analysis, explores the roles and responsibilities of IFs in Wyoming secondary schools, and the contextual factors of those schools that impact the work of IFs,…

Obstacles, and instructional responses to them, that emerged in two middle school science classes during a formative experiment investigating Internet Reciprocal Teaching (IRT), an instructional intervention aimed at increasing digital literacy on the Internet, are reported in this manuscript. Analysis of qualitative data revealed that IRT enabled…

The confluence of No Child Left Behind and the National Reading Panel report on the five essential components of reading instruction forged a path for struggling adolescent readers that supports a narrow curriculum designed to address gaps in constrained skills. Adolescents from a large school district in the state of Tennessee who failed state…

The present study examines how sixth grade students' discussions about texts and comprehension strategies looked similar and/or different based on their identities as readers and their reading levels. Findings indicated that students who self-identified as high-performing readers talked about texts and strategies in ways that were different from…

This study investigated the extent to which new reading comprehension proficiencies may be required when adolescents read for information on the Internet. Seventh graders (N = 109) selected from a stratified random sample of diverse middle school students completed a survey of topic-specific prior knowledge and parallel scenario-based measures of…

This study examines three questions: What kinds of think-aloud statements, in particular what kinds of inferences, are made by middle school students while reading expository text? Does thinking aloud affect comprehension as measured by recall and answers to questions? Does thinking aloud add value to the assessment of comprehension beyond what is…