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It has been more than twenty years since the National Reading Panel Report (2000) provided recommendations for the teaching of reading based on a meta-analysis of suitable research. The report was commissioned at the end of the 1990s, just as the "whole language" reading movement that advocated for analytic phonics instruction and having students spend much of their time silently reading at their "independent" levels was common. The report recommended the explicit teaching of the "Big Five" components of reading instruction, phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, fluency and vocabulary, along with scaffolded reading instruction with challenging text. In the same year, another study concluded that elementary teachers had students reading silently 71% of the time and providing phonics instruction strategies associated with "whole language" such as contextual analysis. In this study, a survey was distributed to school superintendents across the country; 293 completed the survey resulting in a 72% response rate. Respondents indicated a clear and increasing preference for basal programs; a result that we believe reveals the impact of the NRP. Even so, about a quarter of the respondents indicated a preference for programs, and more than half were using assessments, more aligned with "whole language" approaches.

Literature on online learning is replete with key factors needed for effective course delivery; however, the approaches and ideas that educators deem important do not always align with those of students. This study sought to compare actual online course design with student-indicated preferences. A survey instrument was administered to students enrolled in one or more online courses at a rural university in the southwestern United States. Students identified components of their online course(s) and rated components based on personal importance. Data were analyzed using the Borich Model, ranking items on differences between what the participants preferred and what they experienced. The results provide some important insights for educators designing and teaching online courses in higher education.

This study surveyed 649 secondary middle and high school English teachers from two U.S. states on their vocabulary instructional practices and on the professional development they had received to do so. The results showed that teachers are likely not selecting enough words of which to explicitly teach the meanings and that their methods of teaching are more teacher directed than student directed. It is unclear whether teachers are selecting mainly Tier II words, as recommended by research, but that they are clearly not differentiating their instruction for English Learners. In addition, as is true for teachers at all grade levels, teachers are not providing adequate instruction in independent word-learning strategies and spending much time raising students' consciousness about words and language in general. However, teachers with more than eight hours of professional development were significantly more likely to provide several types of instruction and to utilize specific assessment procedures.

Teachers are often required by their administrators to implement Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) into their daily routines. Although there is research to support wide reading, there is little to support the specific practice of SSR. Recent researchers have suggested modified versions of SSR to better address the needs of struggling readers, including ensuring suitable reading selections. This study utilized a multiple baseline across students design to evaluate a modified version of SSR over four weeks with six junior high students displaying high levels of disengagement during SSR. The dependent variable included off-task behavior during SSR. The independent variable was matching books to students' interests and reading levels. Results indicated reduced levels of off-task behavior throughout the study. Across the course of the study, five of the six students' off-task behavior decreased by an average of 25% as a result of the book matching. This result confirmed a hypothesis from a previous study that matching students with books to read according to their interests and reading abilities, positively affects their time on task during SSR. This article provides practitioners with a modified version of SSR that will enhance the effectiveness of its use and suggests future research and implications for practice.

The purpose of this study was to examine the vocabulary teaching of primary-grade teachers (K-3) in low-income schools. A total of 337 observations were conducted during language arts blocks over a three-year period. A coding scheme was developed to analyze teachers' vocabulary instruction. Results indicated that teachers spent less than 5% of their language arts block on vocabulary instruction (7.55 minutes). Most of that time was spent on teaching individual word meanings with less time spent on word-learning strategies. As well, the majority of time was spent on teacher-student interactions using both oral and written forms of communication.

Although there have been any number of national reading reform efforts over the years, there is little evidence that such efforts have been sustained in schools over time. This study focused on addressing 2 questions: To what extent have Reading First schools in 2 states sustained the key elements of this reform over time? To what extent has student reading achievement continued to improve in these states over time? An online survey sent to all schools participating in Reading First in 2 states, follow-up interviews, and state reading achievement scores served as data sources. Findings indicated that most elements of Reading First were maintained 3 years after Reading First funding was terminated. Respondents were positive about the effect of Reading First in their schools. Schools in both states had shown a steady increase in the percentage of students who were proficient over the time of the initiative. In 1 state, this rate continued to improve, although the pace of the increase diminished; in the other state, there was a small but steady yearly decrease in the percentage of students achieving proficiency. We discuss factors contributing to this difference in achievement.

Students beyond the primary grades who struggle with reading lack basic word attack ability and are thus unable to read new words with accuracy. However, there has been little research that reveals the specific word attack errors students exhibit. In this study, 123 struggling adolescent readers receiving special education services were given the Consortium on Reading Excellence, Inc. (CORE) Phonics Survey to determine word attack knowledge for both real and pseudo one syllable and multi-syllabic words and to analyze their performances based on student characteristics. Results revealed that students' abilities to read real words did not carry over into reading pseudo words, that students struggled with multi-syllabic words more than single syllable words, that students struggled more with r-controlled and long vowel single syllable words and less with -tch diagraph and short vowel single syllable words and that there were no significant differences based on demographics. These results confirm that older struggling readers may benefit from additional instruction in attacking words and that the instruction should focus on their particular areas of weakness.

Supervisors are sometimes assigned to pre-service teachers who are placed in far-away schools, often in rural districts. It can be difficult or impossible for supervisors to observe these teachers enough, or perhaps at all, because of the distance. This article describes a single-subject case study that was conducted with two pre-service teachers in which they used video self-monitoring with guidance from their university supervisor to change a teaching behavior. Results showed that the process was effective in changing the behavior of pre-service teachers. We discuss the implications for supervisors and professional development intervention.

This article provides a summary of the five years of implementation of the first cohort of schools participating in Utah's Reading First Initiative. Fifteen schools across six districts comprised this cohort. Performance is compared to the performance of a cohort of matched comparison schools as well as the average state performance on the Utah Language Arts Criterion-referenced Tests (CRTs). Results indicate that Reading First schools appeared to have made greater gains than comparison schools or the state average in the percentage of students achieving proficiency on the CRTs. In addition, the achievement gap for most disaggregated groups was reduced, and greater performance was noted for students who spent three years in Reading First schools rather than one or two. These data are in contrast to the results of the Reading First Impact Study, but highlight the need to examine the contextual effects of systemic reform initiatives such as the Reading First Initiative. (Contains 3 tables, 6 figures, and 2 notes.)

We describe a linguistic clue to speakers' states of mind that has utility for psychotherapists and counselors, and summarize the theoretical and empirical support for using this clue in clinical practice. Specifically, we posit that the degree to which people relate stressful episodes from their lives as a chronological sequence of events is negatively associated with the extent to which they self-protectively avoid experiencing negative affect. We review relevant discussions and findings from linguistics and psychology, and then present a new study that replicates previous research. In this study of the relationship between defensive avoidance and the narrative structure of stressful memories in non-clinical adolescents, 168 high school students spoke for 10 min into a tape recorder about "your most stressful life event." Transcribed interviews were analyzed for narrative immersion, the extent to which the past is retold in chronological order, using a method adopted from Labov and Waletzky. A negative association was found between narrative immersion and avoidance (as operationalized by scores on the Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability Scale). Listening for narrative immersion in the speech of clients discussing past stressful times may therefore represent a useful tool in exploring defensive avoidance of stressful episodic memories.

The event specificity of autobiographical memories refers to the degree to which retold memories include specific details about a unique personal experience from a variety of representational systems supported by different brain areas. This article proposes 2 text measures as indicators of event specificity: (a) a measure of temporal sequence in narration (Labov & Waletzky, 1967; Nelson & Horowitz, 2001) and (b) referential activity (RA; Bucci, 1997). Temporal sequence in narration measures the degree to which a personal memory includes clauses spoken in the same order as the speaker's representation of events. RA is text vividness, or the extent to which words clearly refer to a speaker's detailed cognitive, sensory, and emotional experiences. This article hypothesizes that temporal sequences and RA are both signs of speaker activation of event-specific memories and should be positively correlated. Using 55 transcripts from high school students interviewed about their "most stressful time," this article analyzes the first 250 words of each memory for narrative temporal sequences and for RA. Number of temporal sequences and RA scores were positively associated (Spearman's r = 0.69, p less than 0.001), consistent with the hypothesis. (Contains 1 table.)

This article examines the psychological dynamics involved in providing social support to a person who has explained a personal problem. A series of three experiments reveal that social support is most effective when the listener's reactions and advice match the goals implied by the speaker's cues.