The aim of this article is to expand the dialogue about how contemporary scholarship on the intersections between youth, literacy, and popular culture might inform literacy teacher education. Specifically, this article is designed to (a) orient literacy teacher educators who may be somewhat unfamiliar with this particular line of scholarship to a…

The purpose of this article is to respond to a review of the report "Developing Literacy in Second-language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth," written by our respected colleague Kathy Escamilla, which appeared in a recent edition of the "Journal of Literacy Research." This will also give us…

Recent involvement in teacher education policy around a proposed stand-alone phonics course in Mississippi revealed important guidelines for researchers aiming to influence policy, including (a) build relationships with policy makers; (b) help to define problems by framing issues and proactively put forth solutions rather than waiting to respond…

The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of adolescent use of instant messaging. Grounded in the New Literacy Studies stance that literacy is a social practice embedded in local contexts and informed by global ideologies (Street, 1995), I argue that participation in digital literacies such as instant messaging has implications for…

Developing academic, or school-based, literacy poses a significant challenge for many students, because the language through which academic subjects are presented is markedly different from the social language that students use in everyday ordinary life. This article focuses on one aspect of academic language, the functions of nouns and nominal…

This paper reports the results of a two-year project designed to reorganize basal reading instruction to stress fluent reading and automatic word recognition. The reorganized reading program had three components: a redesigned basal reading lesson that included repeated reading and partner reading, a choice reading period during the day, and a home…

This National Reading Conference Policy Brief provides information related to high stakes reading tests and reading assessment. High stakes reading tests are those with highly consequential outcomes for students, teachers, and schools. These outcomes may include student promotion or retention, student placement in reading groups, school funding…

Newspaper headlines from across the United States reflect the turmoil in public education today, with some states protesting federal requirements for testing, some states lowering proficiency requirements, other states raising proficiency requirements, and even kindergarten and preschool children facing higher academic expectations. These…

In this report, the development, field testing, and validation of the Classroom Literacy Environment Profile (CLEP) are described. In the first phase, characteristics of print-rich classroom environments were identified, defined, and organized into categories through a review of the literature, classroom observations, and teacher focus groups. In…

Explains that as young readers respond to narrative texts in a variety of media, they repeatedly step in and out of the fictional universe of their different stories. Outlines contemporary texts that foster various forms of such border crossing, in and out of diegesis, the framework of events as narrated in the text. Explores how an awareness of…

Examines literacy practices in their sociohistorical contexts, drawing examples of religious reading practices and stances from Orthodox Jewish reading practices. Notes that religious reading practices highlight the repertoire of reading genres, strategies, and stances that members of modern multicultural societies learn to control. Concludes that…

Delves into the birth, childhood, and adolescence of the National Reading Conference, with direct attention given to the germination of the "Journal of Reading Behavior," the former title of this journal. Notes the National Reading Conference has a long and honored history spanning a period of nearly 50 years. (RS)

Explores some of the possibilities of writing that the author realized from working with women writers and describes how, as a result of this work, she has revised her thinking about writing and the teaching of writing. (RS)

Offers a view of the scholarly review process for manuscripts submitted to this journal. Presents an introduction, a manuscript submitted for publication, three reviews of the manuscript, and the author's response. Notes that the rich scholarly dialogue that goes on during the review process is rarely glimpsed in its entirety by most researchers.…

Describes a case study of a Norwegian deaf boy with severe reading disorder. Initiates a holistic approach to writing instruction based on process-oriented writing, Norwegian sign language, drawings, and word processing augmented with a word prediction system called PAL (Predictive Adaptive Lexicon). Concludes that this approach managed to get…