The article describes a reading fluency intervention called Reading Together that combines the method of repeated readings (Samuels, 1979) and the Neurological Impress Method (Heckelman, 1969). Sixteen volunteers from various backgrounds were recruited and trained to deliver the Reading Together intervention to struggling readers in third through…

The article describes a successful intervention program in developing inferential comprehension in a sixth grader. Steve (pseudonym) was proficient in word reading, was able to detect explicit information while reading, but struggled with linking textual information to yield integral ideas. After 10 weeks of working with Steve on word analogies,…

While there has been growing interest in the last few years to address the literacy needs of adolescents, this interest comes when alarming numbers of students are challenged by academic literacy demands in high school. Many students entering high school without passing state assessment examinations are required to take developmental reading…

The acceleration hypothesis views reading rate simultaneously as both an independent and dependent variable that can be manipulated to encourage increases in reading indicators (Breznitz, 2006). Within this conceptualization, reading rate represents all the component sub-processes required for proficient reading and presents the opportunity for a…

There are hundreds of tutoring programs that utilize community volunteers being implemented across the country; however, there are few rigorous efforts to evaluate their effectiveness. This article presents findings on reading achievement from an evaluation of the New York City Experience Corps[R], a program that uses older volunteers to work with…

Vocabulary knowledge is a salient factor influencing success both in and out of school. The specialized vocabulary knowledge in science represents the concept-laden hooks on which learning is hung and enables students to build prior knowledge through the expansion of these conceptual hooks. We have identified four levels of learners--struggling…

This study analyzed and compared the characteristics of expert and less expert teachers' noticing ability during observation of literacy instruction, and builds a conceptual framework for expert noticing during such teaching. Expert participants (n = 7) were defined as university faculty in reading with intensive and long-term experience in…

We surveyed students enrolled in Introductory Psychology courses about their text marking preferences and analyzed the marking in their textbooks. Low-skill readers report more reliance on highlighting strategies and actually mark their texts more than better readers. In addition, low-skilled readers prefer to buy used, previously marked texts…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate effectiveness of rich and basic instruction to incidental exposure of target words with first-grade students within the context of repeated shared storybook reading. Participants were 224 first-grade students, randomly assigned to a condition by classroom, from three elementary schools that serve large…

This study examined the components of a one-on-one literacy tutoring model to identify the necessary and sufficient elements for helping struggling beginning readers. The tutoring components of interest included word work using manipulative letters, written word work, and a generalization component. Reading assessment data from 100 first-grade…

Based on a request from a local principal, this study evaluated how long it would take for third graders, who were reading at primer or first-grade level, to read at grade level; whether their reading gains would remain stable once they stopped receiving tutoring; and whether classroom assistants could provide the tutoring. Her questions were in…

Direct, explicit, and systematic instruction of critical skills has been a hallmark of effective teaching for many years. In this study, we implemented a quasi-experimental pre-/post-test design with nonequivalent groups to determine the effectiveness of syllable skills instruction on reading achievement. Classes were randomly assigned to control…

This qualitative case study examined the beliefs of preservice teachers about teaching struggling readers. The study was concerned with participants' beliefs in the context of tutoring struggling readers in order to discover how these beliefs influenced the preservice teachers' expectations, instruction, and evaluations of these learners. The…

Many students with reading difficulties have a specific learning disability called dyslexia, which is neurobiological in origin and characterized by problems with spelling, decoding, and accurate/fluent word identification, negatively impacting vocabulary growth and comprehension. Consequently, the role of the insightful teacher is critical in…