The research describes the experience of a beginning special education teacher who examined and adapted her teaching practices to attempt to meet the learning needs of the young struggling readers and writers with whom she was working. Autoethnography allowed the researcher to probe and analyze her classroom practice. As the researcher shares her teaching experiences simplistic solutions to reading difficulties are discounted as ineffective. The hegemony of standards-based instruction and assessment practices are challenged. An educational system whereby some students are labeled as deficient due to their sociocultural or socioeconomic differences is viewed through a critical lens. The researcher proposes that fostering students’ freedom to express their knowledge using multimodal expression while supporting students within their zones of proximal development is the key to enhancing literacy learning. Creating learning opportunities that allow students to build on their strengths and pursue their interests ameliorates the injustice of the typical skill drill lessons regularly prescribed for students struggling in school. Teachers need to be respected as professionals who can make programming decisions that are specifically designed to support students at their level of need.

While much research has separately considered informational texts and students who struggle with reading, few studies have looked at how these two interact together and what the possible benefits might be. This study provides descriptive information about the perceptions of informational texts from three striving readers. Each student was interviewed and additional data were collected about the students’ literacy environments from their parents, teachers, and classrooms. Results showed that the three students spoke positively about informational texts and that two of the most attractive qualities are interesting material and making meaning from pictures. Within their classrooms, the three students were exposed to a considerable number of informational texts. While the professional literature advocates the use of informational texts for the benefit of boys, it is interesting to note that the two girls in this study chose to read a considerable number of informational texts. It is concluded that informational texts appealed to the three striving reader study participants. Ideas for helping parents and teachers use informational texts with striving readers are presented.

While much research has separately considered informational texts and students who struggle with reading, few studies have looked at how these two interact together and what the possible benefits might be. This study provides descriptive information about the perceptions of informational texts from three striving readers. Each student was interviewed and additional data were collected about the students’ literacy environments from their parents, teachers, and classrooms. Results showed that the three students spoke positively about informational texts and that two of the most attractive qualities are interesting material and making meaning from pictures. Within their classrooms, the three students were exposed to a considerable number of informational texts. While the professional literature advocates the use of informational texts for the benefit of boys, it is interesting to note that the two girls in this study chose to read a considerable number of informational texts. It is concluded that informational texts appealed to the three striving reader study participants. Ideas for helping parents and teachers use informational texts with striving readers are presented.

There are many students in the class that have dyslexia and can struggle with simple tasks such as reading. Therefore, this study set out to investigate the applications of text to speech synthesizers facilitate learning English at upper secondary with these students in focus from a teacher’s perspective. This study has been conducted through means of a semi- structured interviews with secondary school teachers. Research to support the fact that TTS does in fact aid facilitate the reading of students with difficulties has been stark. One the other hand scholars have claimed that it does not always aid struggling readers, therefore this paper will explore the discrepancies between these contrasting views. In the results it was found that the usage of TTS in the classroom should be seen as a compensatory tool that can aid struggling students in reading as opposed to being seen as a solution. The question to whether this can aid students without struggling difficulties was bound to the intelligibility of the voice of the TTS. Furthermore, it was maintained that this could in fact encourage students with their reading on the basis of academic success.

Many schools throughout the United States are struggling to address student deficiencies in reading. Empirical evidence demonstrating the efficacy of reading intervention programs is often lacking. This study examined the effectiveness of an 8-week reading intervention program, the Wilson Reading System (WRS), that was implemented in a local elementary school in Washington D.C. to address the reading deficiencies of 75 third-grade students. Guided by Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), a quasi-experimental pre/post research design was used to examine differences in reading proficiencies following the completion of the WRS program, as measured by the Dynamic Indicator of Basic Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessment instrument. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to test the differences in DIBELS posttest composite scores and individual subscale scores. A multivariate analysis of covariance was used to examine pre/post differences while controlling for gender and days absent. While there was a statistically significant difference in the DIBELS composite score (p < .05), the individual subscales lacked statistical significance when controlling for gender and days absent. The descriptive and bivariate analysis of test scores with respect to gender and days absent were not of practical nor statistical significance. These findings suggest that the results of this study were due to the duration of the reading intervention program. This study contributes to positive social change as it brings to light the limited value of short-term intervention programs and highlights the extensive and integral efforts needed to address academic deficiencies in reading literacy.

This study examined a first grade, general education teacher's changing practices related to reading intervention for struggling readers as she worked with a group of university researchers to develop and implement a first grade reading instruction model. This study also investigated the following research questions: What changes in a first grade, general education teacher’s reading instructional practices occurred because of a year long university-teacher collaborative relationship in implementing evidence-based reading instruction for struggling students? What were the facilitators and barriers for implementing evidence-based reading practices for struggling readers? Analyses of classroom observations, teacher interviews, intervention validity checklists (IVC's), observations, support team meeting notes, research team meeting notes, field notes, and other forms of documentation provided a view into the process of change of one teacher. / text

Idioms such as break a leg and piece of cake make up a significant portion of spoken and written discourse. Like other linguistic expressions stemming from conceptual metaphor (e.g., metaphors, similes), idioms serve to provide understanding of one concept in relation to a different concept (e.g., love is a journey). The ability to comprehend figurative expressions has an extended developmental period that begins as young as 5 years and continues into adulthood. The Language Experience Hypothesis attributes figurative language competence to meaningful exposure to figurative expressions. The Global Elaboration Hypothesis, however, proposes that figurative language comprehension depends upon skills needed for general text comprehension (e.g., ability to make inferences, semantic knowledge). Studies with children and adolescents have shown that reading comprehension relates to both idiom familiarity and comprehension. Similar studies have not been conducted with adult struggling readers. This study examined idiom familiarity and comprehension of adult struggling readers (N = 60; M age = 41 years) in relation to their reading skills. The Idiom Familiarity and Idiom Comprehension tasks developed by Nippold and colleagues (1993, 2001) were used, which allowed for comparisons between the performance of adult struggling readers in this study and past research. Participants’ idiom comprehension scores were lower than those of adults studied in previous research, and comparable to those of children reading at similar levels. Their familiarity rankings of individual idioms aligned with the levels established by Nippold and Rudzinski (1993); however, they were less familiar with idioms than the twelfth grade group. Results from a familiarity (high, moderate, low) x context (isolation, story) ANOVA showed story context helped adult struggling readers comprehend more high-familiarity idioms, but hindered comprehension of low-familiarity idioms. Hierarchical regressions revealed that reading comprehension accounted for unique variance over and beyond idiom familiarity and word reading skills for idioms presented in both isolation and story contexts. Findings from this study contribute to the study of figurative language comprehension by examining adults with limited literacy skills. Similarly, these findings contribute to the field of adult literacy by providing initial evidence of adult struggling readers’ familiarity and comprehension of idioms.

Student success is important for student learning, for parents, and for schools; however, in the last decade standardized test data has shed much light on the need for improved student performance across grade levels. Research findings identify that there are millions of struggling readers in US schools. Using assessment data, schools are implementing various types of intervention systems in an effort to meet all students' needs. Response to Intervention (RtI) is a method of intervention that provides systematic assistance to students who have learning difficulties and need additional support beyond regular classroom instruction. Results showed that RtI related activities (i.e., academic, behavioral, social) encompassed the majority of the participating school counselors' time and responsibilities. Additional results showed that because of the increased number of struggling learners in schools and the way schools view the school counselor's responsibilities, a shift has occurred in their overall role. Participating counselors reported that they spend a fraction of their time in counseling and the majority of their time in "managing" cases; they deal with countless hours of paperwork and testing. Study results also raised questions about what RtI is, how the model is implemented in schools, and about a need to revisit the role of the school counselor within the RtI framework. Our students will benefit not only from quality instruction, assessment, support, and services, but they also need the valuable services of a school counselor. School counselors with the collaboration of teachers and parents provide the most beneficial way for student success.

In this qualitative study, I explored teacher beliefs and practices about struggling adolescent readers. I chose to study 3 middle school 7th- and 8th-grade English teachers based on purposeful and convenience sampling through principal recommendation. My data consisted of interviews, observations, and documents to understand what teachers believe about struggling adolescent readers and what teachers of struggling middle school students do during instruction. I created the interviews and observation protocols and analyzed the data using the How People Learn Framework (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005; National Research Council, 2000). Findings suggest (1) negative extrinsic motivation was used to boost student assessment performance, (2) the lack of foundational reading skills can cause problems through adolescence, (3) discussion strategies were used to assist struggling adolescent readers, (4) teachers had strong opinions about data walls, and (5) positive relationships with and between students were beneficial. These findings suggest implications for teachers and school leaders.

Mississippis low rate of literacy has been the focus of concern for educators and policy makers for many years. At the same time the National Reading Panel (National Institute of Health, 2000) was attempting to resolve the issue of which methods were most effective in teaching children to read by conducting a meta-analysis of reading research, Mississippi was developing a reform model, the Mississippi Reading Reform Model (MRRM), to raise the reading achievement of its students. In 2000 James Barksdale, founder of Netscape, donated one hundred million dollars to Mississippi and founded the Barksdale Reading Institute (BRI) in order to assist in the implementation of the MRRM and, ultimately, raise the literacy rates in Mississippi. In 2006 BRI initiated a reading reform model in the form of demonstration classrooms. Core reading instruction for kindergarten and first grade students at-risk for reading failure in the demonstration classrooms was provided by the Barksdale Literacy Teachers (BLTs). Reading interventions were provided for kindergarten through third grade students in the demonstration classrooms by the BLTs and an Intervention Specialist (IS). Reading methods and strategies promoted by the NRP formed the basis of instruction in the demonstration classrooms. The subject of this qualitative study is the experiences of 12 BLTs as they implemented demonstration classrooms across Mississippi. The researcher investigated the BLTs? personal experiences as they worked with students, predominantly African Americans and from low-socioeconomic communities. The Read Well program was used in the classrooms as a means of ensuring the use of NRP promoted methods. Research findings reveal the problems associated with teaching struggling readers who are also living with the effects of poverty. BLTs described their use of a scripted commercial program and problems the program posed for their students as speakers of African American Vernacular English.