Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons^™

7 Hands-On Strategies For Struggling Readers, Elise Murray, Stacey Murray

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Struggling readers are found in almost every classroom across the world. With differing learning styles and abilities, teachers are encouraged now, more than ever, to be innovative when teaching foundational reading strategies. Within this article, readers are provided with a literature review of research and educational literature that discusses how multisensory, hands-on activities promote engagement and active learning for all students. The recommended seven hands-on learning strategies that can promote learning and support for struggling readers during literacy instruction include Build the Words, Feel the Words, Whole Body Letters, Five Finger Retell, Sight Word BINGO, …

Scholastic Liberation: Schools' Impact On African American Academic Achievement, Aaron M. Johnson

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

This article addresses some of the factors that contribute to low achievement observed in African American students. It is common that either schools or school districts are unable to fix the problem or they are unaware about how the beliefs and attitudes about African American students can contribute to their low performance in school. Furthermore, this article encourages school institutions to examine themselves and change school environments to align to the identities of African American students. African American students must be liberated from negative assumptions about them and to do that, individuals and the institution of school as a whole, …

Digital Media Production To Support Literacy For Secondary Students With Diverse Learning Abilities, April Marie Leach

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Producing digital media is a hands-on, inquiry-based mindful process that naturally embeds Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles into literacy instruction, providing options for learning and assessment for a wide array of students with diverse learning abilities. Video production learning experiences acknowledge the cognitive talents of some students labeled “disabled.” For some, the discovery of personal abilities activated when learning through the production process may motivate deeper learning. Although challenges of access, quality of teacher preparation and assessment strategies represent significant challenges, digital media production learning experiences offer diverse learners a rich, socially interactive environment that models open communication and …

Literacy Tutoring Strategies Of America Reads University-Level Tutors, Mauricio Cadavid

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore, study, outline and describe tutoring strategies applied by American Reads (AR) tutors and non-America Reads (nAR) tutors helping young tutees develop early literacy skills. There is limited research on the implementation of effective tutoring strategies during one-on-one tutoring with elementary school children in terms of early literacy development. Most of the literature is split between peer tutoring and program tutoring. This lack of research presents a particular challenge when it comes to identifying an effective tutor and effective tutoring methodologies. Using a qualitative approach, this study utilizes survey data, session recordings, and …

A Case Study Of Middle School Teachers' Preparations For High-Stakes Assessments, David Lee Yeary

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Students, educators, and schools across the country have been presented with challenges as a result of rigorous standards and high-complexity tests. The problem addressed in this case study was that teachers in a rural middle school in a southeastern state were preparing students to take a new high-stakes state-mandated assessment in English language arts with very little information about what should be done to best prepare students to perform well. Danielson's work on instructional leaders, Webb's work on alignment of standards and assessments, and Tankersley's research on alignment of instruction and assessment provided the frameworks for the study. The participants …

Ireach Blended Learning Model And Reading Lexile Growth Of Freshmen In Maryville City Schools, Whitney Ann Schmidt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Maryville City School system has implemented the first year of the iReach blended learning model for which all students in the school district have access to either a laptop or an iPad to support their learning every day. The availability of research on the impact of iReach is limited because the blended learning instructional model is relatively new and has not yet been subjected to numerous research studies. The purpose of this ex post facto quasi-experimental quantitative study was to compare student reading Lexile growth data collected through the use of the Reading Comprehension Assessment before and after iReach …

An Evaluation Of A Summer Reading Program At A Public Middle School In A Southeastern State, Michael Waiksnis

Education Dissertations and Projects

Academic achievement loss during the summer is an established fact that is backed by a dearth of research. Most students generally lose academic ground in math during the summer. However, summer learning loss in reading is not shared by all subgroups of students. Students living in poverty lose, on average, 3 months of academic learning while other students gain or stay the same over the summer months. This is of major concern to schools and districts as they struggle to close the achievement gap.

A middle school in a southeastern state created a reading program that guaranteed access to books …