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This manuscript highlights benefits of service-learning (SL) as a promising pedagogical approach to improving teaching and learning in college classrooms. Drawing on the collective experiences of integrating SL projects in university courses, the authors share a framework aimed at assisting faculty in higher education in designing, implementing, and evaluating SL projects across diverse higher education courses. A case example illustrating how SL projects can be infused in a graduate course is offered, and recommendations are provided for faculty who wish to integrate SL projects with the goal of improving teaching and learning in their college courses.

In this study, we revised the "Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory" (MARSI), a self-report instrument designed to assess students' awareness of reading strategies when reading school-related materials. We collected evidence of structural, generalizability, and external aspects of validity for the revised inventory (MARSI-R). We first conducted a confirmatory factor analysis of the MARSI instrument, which resulted in the reduction of the number of strategy statements from 30 to 15. We then tested MARSI-R for factorial invariance across gender and ethnic groups and found that there is a uniformity in student interpretation of the reading strategy statements across these groups, thus allowing for their comparison on levels of metacognitive processing skills. We found evidence of the external validity aspect of MARSI-R data through correlations of such data with a measure of the students' perceived reading ability. Given that this journal is oriented to second language learning and teaching, our article also includes comments on the "Survey of Reading Strategies" (SORS), which was based on the original MARSI and was designed to assess adolescents' and adults' metacognitive awareness and perceived use of ESL reading strategies. We provide a copy of the MARSIR instrument and discuss the implications of the study's findings in light of new and emerging insights relative to assessing students' metacognitive awareness and perceived use of reading strategies

In this brief report, we share three challenges we encountered when designing and implementing an after school intervention program for an ethnically diverse group of middle grade underachieving readers. We also offer practical solutions to help guide middle school teams in anticipating and addressing potential problems when putting in place literacy interventions in after school settings.

In this exploratory quasi-experimental case study, we assessed the promise of a yearlong supplemental reading intervention with a small pilot group of at-risk first grade readers in an elementary school setting. Using standardized measures of reading proficiency, we found that after 47 hours of one-on-one tutoring instruction, students read significantly more proficiently than did non-tutored students in a matched group of first grade peers in the same school. These results are encouraging in light of literacy research documenting the impact of one-on-one tutoring by qualified tutors of at-risk early grade readers. We used lessons learned from this pilot study to help inform and direct the necessary revisions and refinements of future reading interventions with the goal of building the school's capacity to support the literacy development of at-risk readers so that they can catch up with their typically developing peers.

In this study, we examined 5th grade students' levels of vocabulary knowledge and syntactic awareness relative to their reading comprehension performance. The aim was to explore the contributions of vocabulary and syntactic awareness as potential sources of reading comprehension difficulty for these readers. Overall, we found that both vocabulary knowledge and syntactic awareness contributed in significant yet unique ways to students' reading comprehension performance. Students who showed weaknesses in vocabulary and syntax also performed poorly on measures of reading comprehension. Additionally, we found that syntactic awareness explained a small amount of additional variance in reading comprehension beyond what was explained by vocabulary. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of research and practice addressing the relationships among syntax, vocabulary, and reading comprehension for more and less skilled readers.

In this study, we examined the role of morphology, an important yet largely understudied source of difficulty, in reading ability among 7th grade students in one junior high school in the southwestern United States. We sought to find out how much variance in reading ability is accounted for by these students' morphological knowledge, and whether skilled readers do in fact have higher levels of morphological knowledge than less skilled student peers. We found that students' sensitivity to the morphological structure of words accounted for 18% of the variance in these students' reading performance. We further found that skilled readers had a significantly higher level of sensitivity to the structure of words than did less skilled readers. In light of these findings, we offer recommendations for interpreting and using the results obtained to better understand and scaffold students' morphological knowledge, with the goal of helping promote students' vocabulary growth and reading comprehension performance.

In this article, the authors introduce a data analysis procedure, abbreviated as FAD, to help literacy professionals who work with children in clinical or classroom settings identify and interpret patterns of assessment data with the goal of determining children's literacy strengths and needs. The procedure uses data from multiple literacy assessments to filter out irrelevant information, analyze the relevant information through a systematic process of identifying meaningful and coordinated patterns and relationships, and derive a tentative diagnosis of potential reading and writing difficulties based on outcomes of the analyses. (Contains 2 figures.)

Literature study groups help promote critical thinking and improve reading skills. These groups, in general, are characterized by: (1) a flexible grouping--usually determined by a reader's choice of a given book at a given time; (2) participant-centered dialogue, where the teacher takes on the role of facilitator and expert participant rather than director of discussion; and (3) embeddedness in a strong, meaning-centered curriculum in which learners read and write copiously for real purposes. What makes such engagements particularly well-suited to middle grades learners is that literature studies are highly effective in developing reading ability, knowledge about literature, and critical and analytic thinking (Faust, Cockrill, Hancock, & Isserstedt, 2005). Moreover, they accomplish these things in such a way that students are aware of their own growth. Literature studies provide space for students' voices to be heard, valuing their meanings, concerns, and insights. This article describes research-based approaches to literacy study groups and provides suggestions for implementation.

In this article, the authors suggest that many of the problems struggling readers encounter while reading stem from distinct yet fundamental sources of difficulty related to the types of text read (print or online), the task or activity readers engage in, and the sociocultural context of reading. The authors further argue that although these problems are multidimensional, they can and should be addressed simultaneously. Using a case scenario of a third-grade struggling reader, the authors share guidelines with an example of how her tutor planned, organized, and monitored instruction in a one-on-one tutorial setting--here defined as a setting in which a single teacher or tutor, usually not the classroom teacher, plans and delivers instruction to one student. The authors anticipate that the insights shared will be helpful to professional educators, paraprofessionals, and volunteer or peer tutors who work with struggling readers in similar settings. (Contains 1 figure.)

In this article, the authors present a snapshot of how one kindergarten and Reading Recovery teacher organized instruction in her classroom, enabling her to provide constructively responsive reading assessment and instruction for her developing and struggling readers. (Contains 2 figures.)

In this column, we share the collective reflections of a group of teachers and a school administrator in one Midwestern elementary school, which highlight the value of using data collaboratively to bring about instructional change and to improve student reading achievement.

How much time do college students spend reading for recreational and academic purposes? Do Internet and television use displace or interfere with reading time? In this study, we used an innovative time-diary survey method to explore whether the time students spend on the Internet or watching television displaces time that would be spent reading for academic or recreational purposes. (Contains 9 tables.)

The constantly changing nature of literacy, brought about by the Internet and other forms of information and communication technologies (ICTs), has pressed researchers and practitioners to seek new ways of addressing the complexities of reading comprehension and writing on and with the Internet. In this brief interview, members of the New Literacies Research Lab share valuable insights on the assessment of the new literacies of online reading comprehension.

A carefully coordinated literacy assessment and instruction framework implemented school-wide can support school teams in making sense of various types of data for instructional planning. Instruction that is data based and goal driven sets the stage for continuous reading and writing improvement. (Contains 2 figures.)

Compares writing products of 60 third-grade students who drew before writing a story to writing products of 59 students who wrote without drawing. Finds that students who drew produced more words and overall wrote better than nondrawers. Notes that results were consistent for boys and girls regardless of group membership. (PA)

There is a delicate balance between the assessment of learning and assessment for learning. The recommendations included in this Assessment department may be useful for teachers working to achieve this balance and find a more accurate and complete understandings of students' literacy strengths and needs.

In this study, we examined the role of morphology, an important yet largely understudied source of difficulty, in reading ability among 7th grade students in one junior high school in the southwestern United States. We sought to find out how much variance in reading ability is accounted for by these students'morphological knowledge, and whether skilled readers do in fact have higher levels of morphological knowledge than less skilled student peers. We found that students' sensitivity to the morphological structure of words accounted for 18% of the variance in these students' reading performance. We further found that skilled readers had a significantly higher level of sensitivity to the structure of words than did less skilled readers. In light of these findings, we offer recommendations for interpreting and using the results obtained to better understand and scaffold students' morphological knowledge, with the goal of helping promote students' vocabulary growth and reading comprehension performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examined 5 th grade students' levels of vocabulary knowledge and syntactic awareness relative to their reading comprehension performance. The aim was to explore the contributions of vocabulary and syntactic awareness as potential sources of reading comprehension difficulty for these readers. Overall, we found that both vocabulary knowledge and syntactic awareness contributed in significant yet unique ways to students' reading comprehension performance. Students who showed weaknesses in vocabulary and syntax also performed poorly on measures of reading comprehension. Additionally, we found that syntactic awareness explained a small amount of additional variance in reading comprehension beyond what was explained by vocabulary. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of research and practice addressing the relationships among syntax, vocabulary, and reading comprehension for more and less skilled readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]