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…

The purpose of the study was to examine short- and long-term effects of two instructional approaches designed to improve the reading fluency of second-grade children: Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (or FORI; Stahl & Heubach, 2005) and a wide reading approach (Kuhn et al., 2006). By the end of second grade, children in the wide reading…

The current educational spotlight on accountability has helped create a focus on teacher practices and their subsequent effects on student achievement. Professional development has been shown to be an effective vehicle to impact practices; however, research has only recently begun to provide an understanding of its impact in literacy instruction…

Reading fluency has traditionally been viewed as a goal of reading that is taught and mastered in the elementary grades. In this article we challenge that notion by exploring the role of reading fluency as a contributor to reading proficiency and difficulty among intermediate and middle grade students. We assessed reading fluency development among…

The current study examined the sight word acquisition rate (AR) of 43 second-grade students who were English language learners (ELL) from three diverse, urban schools. The AR was analyzed in relation to each student's oral proficiency in English, and examined whether or not children who are ELL but have a higher level of English proficiency would…

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…

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of fluency development and focus on instructional approaches that are intended to improve fluency that go beyond the most frequently recommended strategy of repeated readings. Repeated reading is the most recognized approach for developing fluency, and although repeated readings have shown…

A mixed methodological approach was used to examine the effect of a cross-age tutoring writing program among second- and fourth-grade students in a rural elementary school in Delaware. Pre-test and post-test writing prompts were administered and evaluated using the 6+1 traits writing assessment rubric. Students were assessed qualitatively through…

Middle- and high-school content area teachers' beliefs about literacy teaching and learning were investigated during the initial implementation phase of a year-long content literacy professional development project. Teacher interview data were used to examine factors that contribute to and/or inhibit teachers' successful implementation of content…

This article uses data from three qualitative research studies to explore how the instructional choices teachers make impact students' literacy development in secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. This report documents that secondary teachers are using various instructional strategies to combine literature content and literacy…

Through a case-study approach, the authors focus on understanding the complexity of teachers' knowledge development, particularly as it pertains to teachers' beliefs about literacy development and their teaching practices in literacy. Participants of the study are middle-school teachers who shared their beliefs and practices through (1) a…

In 1996 President Clinton established the America Reads Challenge Act (1997), which included a commitment that every child will read independently and well by the end of third grade. This initiative was predicated on links between achievement and poverty (Riley, 1996, 2002) and that children reading below grade level in the early grades perform…

In this study, 38 preservice teachers enrolled in two sections of a language and literacy course at a small university in Montana were paired as pen pals with 14 fourth graders in Kansas. The purpose of the research project was to determine in what ways and contexts the literate identities of the children emerged through letter exchanges with the…

Schools across the nation are responding to reading assessment mandates by turning to DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), a program endorsed by the Federal Reading First Grant Office, to assess fluency on a range of reading-related tasks. DIBELS makes strong claims regarding its usefulness in documenting reading progress…