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Poetry can help develop in students a love for reading, writing, and playing with language, yet it is often a neglected literary form in many reading curricula. Those who see the value of poetry recognize it as the perfect genre for teaching phonics, fluency, and a love of language. The rhyming, rhythmical language of poetry provides the perfect backdrop for teaching word families (rimes/phonograms). Poetry also helps young readers develop fluency through the use of beautiful, melodic language that begs to be read repeatedly, which helps develop prosody and a lifelong love for literacy. The thoughtful selection of words also provides the right context for vocabulary development and critical thinking. However, for teachers who love poetry, the most important reason to use this text type may simply be that it works!

Current professional development efforts in writing at the secondary level have not resulted in student improvement on large-scale writing assessments. To maximize funding resources and instructional time, school leaders need a way to determine professional development content for writing teachers that aligns with specific student outcomes. The present study addressed this need by triangulating data from 3 sources to identify student-centered professional development needs for writing teachers and discrepancies between teachers' stated beliefs and actual classroom practices in writing instruction. Results revealed inconsistencies between teachers' stated beliefs and practices in terms of teaching grammar and conventions in the context of writing and providing formative feedback to students during writing instruction. Although the results of this study are specific to the focal school, experts can apply the process of collecting and analyzing multiple forms of data to determine the quality and needs of secondary writing programs in other schools.

The present study examined the impact of an intensive reading fluency intervention on the overall reading performance of 37 struggling readers in 3rd grade. Students' 3rd-grade classroom teachers and/or their performance on a state-mandated reading achievement test given toward the end of the 3rd-grade school year identified them for the study. Selected students participated in a 25-session summer reading clinic. The main instructional intervention was the Fluency Development Lesson, which is an intensive fluency instruction program. Immediately prior to and after the summer reading program clinicians pre- and posttested students on a variety of reading competencies. Analyses of pre- and posttest scores showed that students who had received fluency instruction in the summer clinic made substantial and significant gains in their reading performance. This is noteworthy because despite the fact that many students actually lose ground in their reading achievement over summer, these students made significant reading performance gains. We discuss the practical implications of the results.

The Common Core State Standards suggest that an appropriate goal for secondary education is college and career readiness. Previous research has identified reading fluency as a critical component for proficient reading. One component of fluency is word recognition accuracy and automaticity. The present study attempted to determine the word recognition accuracy and automaticity indicators for incoming college students and to examine the relationship between oral reading rate and ACT scores. Knowledge of such performance may provide secondary literacy educators with another tool for assessing reading proficiency and college readiness. Eighty-one students were asked to read a college-level narrative passage. Mean student accuracy and automacity scores were determined, as well as correlations between accuracy, automacity, and students' ACT scores. Results suggest a moderate and significant relationship between measures of automaticity and both the ACT reading subtest and ACT composite scores.

Instructional design is an integral part of a balanced approach to teaching vocabulary instruction. This article presents several instructional procedures using research-based vocabulary strategies and explains how to design and adapt those strategies in order to reach desired learning outcomes. Emphasis is placed on research-based principles that guide effective vocabulary instruction and on the importance of incorporating vocabulary instruction into all phases of the reading lesson framework--before, during, and after reading (Blair, Rupley, & Nichols 2007; Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz 2011). Vocabulary instruction should encourage students to make associations and accommodations to their experiences and provide them with varied opportunities to practice, apply, and discuss their word knowledge in meaningful contexts (Beck & McKeown, 2002; Rupley & Nichols, 2005). The ultimate goal of teaching vocabulary is for the students to expand, refine, and add to their existing conceptual knowledge and enhance their comprehension and understanding of what they read (Baumann, Font, Edwards, & Boland , 2005; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986). This article seeks to provide educators with both a theoretical framework and practical classroom instructional suggestions for doing so.

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 successful results in developing students' fluency, continual reliance on repeated readings without appropriate guidance and support can lead to diminished student engagement. Providing students with varied opportunities to practice and acquire fluency will enhance their active participation in fluency instruction and engage them in reading for multiple purposes. This article provides an overview of fluency instructional methods that go beyond unassisted and unguided student reading practice. (Contains 1 figure.)

Phonics and fluency have been identified as two essential elements in the effective teaching of reading. Although normally considered two distinct elements of the reading curriculum that are separate, through the use of rhyming poetry both phonics and fluency can be taught in a synergistic and authentic manner. In this article, the authors explore how the repeated reading and performing of rhyming poetry can help children learn to read words accurately, automatically, and with appropriate and meaningful expression. (Contains 1 table.)

An important, yet either often missing or under emphasized realization in both federal and state standards for literacy is that literacy is primarily a language process and culture is a reflection of language. As such, language and culture must be retained as essential components upon which reading instruction is based. Our nation and our states truly want individuals who can use literacy to learn and to enhance their quality of life as well as the quality of life of those around them. This article looks at essential considerations that must be given to the role of language and culture in literacy instruction.

What teaching strategies must teachers of reading be able to perform and how are these strategies applied effectively in teaching children to read? This article attempts to answer these two important questions. One key element of a successful reading program focuses on the teacher. A brief review of the teacher effectiveness literature, including the International Reading Association's position statement on excellent reading teachers, is followed by a description of common instructional features associated with the effective teaching of reading: (1) Assessing students' strengths and weaknesses; (2) Structuring reading activities around an explicit instructional model; (3) Providing students with opportunities to learn and apply skills and strategies in authentic reading tasks; (4) Ensuring that students attend to the learning tasks; and (5) Believing in one's teaching abilities and expecting students to be successful.

The goal of this article is to explore the effects of professional development on middle school teachers' understanding and application of literacy strategies supporting and enhancing instruction across the curriculum. This study investigated the extent to which reading and writing strategies, along with sound instructional design, were implemented by middle school teachers in their content areas based on data collected from self-reports (i.e., strategy and design checklists) and authors' classroom observations. Results from the analysis of the data collected suggest that the sampled middle school teachers used a wide variety of instructional strategies and instructional designs throughout their teaching. While certain instructional designs (whole-class discussion) and strategies (note-taking and graphic organizers) were used universally throughout the school, perhaps more important was the fact that others were selected dependent upon the unique content area they taught. (Contains 3 tables.)

Children's acquisition of vocabulary is essential for gains in reading comprehension and reading development. Struggling readers often do not make gains in their reading comprehension because they have a limited reading vocabulary. Enhancing the vocabulary development and growth for children who are experiencing reading difficulties enables them to better identify key concepts in text that they read, make inferences within and between texts, and increase their abilities to comprehend. Teaching vocabulary and the incidental learning of words should not be viewed as competitive forces that create a good/bad dichotomy. Instead, it should be acknowledged that learners develop vocabularies through both approaches, and that teachers need to know when students would benefit from explicit instruction that initially teaches word meaning by application in meaningful narrative and expository text (McKeown, 1993).

Necessary prerequisites for and at the same time powerful predictors of children's success in beginning reading are the development of phonemic awareness and concepts of print. Students who are learning to read need to be taught how to consciously attend to phonemes and to develop an understanding regarding concepts about print. This study was two-fold. First, we examined demographic characteristics that included gender, socioeconomics, preschool experience, and race to determine how these factors related to phonemic awareness and concepts of print development for kindergarten students. It was concluded that low SES children and Latino children were at greater risk of not developing phonemic awareness and concepts of print in kindergarten. Further data were collected and analyzed to examine low SES and Latino children's knowledge of phonemic awareness and concepts of print development. The study found that, along with maturation, a diagnostic approach that guides phonemic awareness instruction and concepts about print enhances kindergarten students' phonemic awareness and concepts of print development. (Contains 4 tables.)

Instructional design is an integral part of a balanced approach to teaching vocabulary instruction. The goal of this paper is to reflect on several lessons using research-based vocabulary strategies, and to present think-alouds that detail the steps in matching instructional design with those strategies in order to reach the learning outcome. Vocabulary instruction should encourage students to make associations and accommodations to their experiences and provide them with varied opportunities to practice, apply, and discuss their word knowledge in meaningful settings. The ultimate goal of teaching vocabulary is for the students to expand, refine, and add to their existing conceptual knowledge and enhance their reading abilities (Rupley, Logan & Nichols, 1999). Students should be engaged in learning new words and expanding their understanding of words through instruction that is based on active processing. A key component of effective vocabulary instruction is thoughtful reflection about instructional design. (Contains 4 figures.)

Explores how students' perceived learning relates to emotions, motivation, and goal orientation. Finds that students significantly reported more negative emotions than positive emotions, thus indicating that the emotions of the learner were more negative, the motivation was more extrinsic and the goal orientation of the learners could be classified as more performance goal oriented than task goal oriented. (SG)

Argues that technology has the potential to increase middle school students' personal investment and subsequent engagement in learning. Introduces several strategies that integrate technology with reading and writing across the subject areas. Highlights three strategies: anticipation guide, collaborative learning, and promotion of class participation with a single computer. (SD)

Tested the benefits of matching high-anxiety German and American 8th graders with teacher-centered instruction and low-anxiety students with student-centered instruction. Data from student interviews and diaries indicated that anxiety alone was did not necessarily significantly deter achievement, and instructional patterns alone did not account for achievement levels. Student characteristics interacted with other variables to influence achievement. (SM)

Considers how the development of reading proficiency in children is perhaps the highest-ranking educational objective of legislators, administrators, teachers, parents, and the community. Determines if parental training and involvement in the teaching of selected reading lessons increased their first-grade children's reading levels. Finds that the students involved in the study made significant gains compared to gains of the control group. (SC)

Assesses preservice and inservice reading teachers' literature knowledge and their skill in analyzing literature for middle/upper grades. Indicates that half of undergraduates knew only half of the literary terms and were unable to analyze either the story or poem adequately. Notes that graduate students fared better. Concludes teachers may have insufficient knowledge of literature to deliver a literature-based reading curriculum. (PA)

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The purpose of this paper was to explore the effects of professional development on middle school teachers' understanding and application of literacy strategies that support and enhance instruction across the curriculum. This study investigated the extent to which reading and writing strategies, along with sound instructional design, were implemented by middle school teachers in their content areas based on data collected from self-reports and authors' classroom observations. Results suggest that the sampled middle school teachers used a wide variety of instructional strategies and instructional designs throughout their teaching. While certain instructional designs (whole class discussion) and strategies (note-taking and graphic organizers) were used universally throughout the school, others were selected more or less frequently across different content areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports from the issue including one on how adolescent learners understand their attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs associated with assigned readings; one on the arrangement of reading and reading-to-learn instruction; and one on the implementation by middle school teachers of instructional strategies and designs.

Over the past two decades, reading fluency has been increasingly recognized as an important instructional variable for success in reading. Yet, this has not always been the case. This article presents a historical review of the nature and role of fluency instruction in the United States. The roots of oral reading fluency began in an age when texts and other forms of entertainment and information were limited. Historically, in America, oral reading was the predominant means for conveying ideas and passing the time at home with the family. In the 1800s, American education's primary method of instruction emphasized the need for being able to read aloud with expression and fluency, in order to hold the listeners' attention and convey information. As texts and other forms of information became more available, oral reading became deemphasized, and silent reading was viewed as a better approach to developing readers' comprehension at the cost of fluency development. With continued research and national reports that indicate the significant contributions of oral reading fluency to reading comprehension and academic proficiency, it is clear that the roots of oral reading run deep, and that fluent reading development is important to learners' academic achievement and reading comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]