Molly Ness

An essential element in teaching children to effectively comprehend text is the use of teacher-led think alouds. The overarching objective of this study was to explore how to better prepare preservice teachers to conduct think alouds in their future classrooms. Data from 97 preservice teachers consisted of several sources: (a) questionnaires, (b) lesson plans, (c) lesson transcripts, and (d) written reflections. Preservice teachers made significant growth in the quantity and quality of reading comprehension strategies they incorporated. Discussion focuses on the challenges that participants encountered when thinking aloud. Finally, suggestions for supporting preservice teachers in effectively thinking aloud are provided.

... “Critical approaches.”. In Handbook of reading research: Volume III Edited by: Kamil, M., Mosenthal, P., Pearson, PD and Barr, R. 141–151. ... College Student Journal , 21: 90–97. View all references), emotional states of students (Small, Hollenbeck, & Haley, 198242. ...

Increasing awareness about screening and instructional interventions for students with dyslexia is a necessary component of P-12 teacher preparation. Disparities in reading achievement for students with disabilities, including those with dyslexia, is evidenced in lower literacy testing scores as well as lower high school graduation rates for those with documented disabilities when compared to typical developing peers. Preservice teachers, however, continue to struggle with understanding, identifying, and providing targeted literacy instruction to remediate reading challenges for students with dyslexia. Emerging data on the impact of the COVID-19 school closures on lags in student’s reading attainment, further solidifies the need for teacher preparation programs to prepare preservice teachers to implement best practices for supporting students with dyslexia. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine the impact of asynchronous online learning modules on preservice teach...

In recent decades, researchers have indicated that U.S. schools have underexposed elementary grade students to informational text. The increased exposure to this genre should be a top instructional priority. In the present study, we explored 46 third-grade students ’ attitudes toward and perceptions of informational text. Using three data sources (a student survey, individual interviews, and logs of independent reading time), we found that students read nonfiction text less frequently than fictional texts and preferred fictional to nonfiction text. Based on these findings, we provided suggestions on how teachers can help young readers diversify their text preferences. Key words: informational text, students ’ attitudes, reading preferences

Originality/value of paper – This chapter provides research-based examples of using the GRR model to build students’ ability to inference. Additionally, the chapter provides “I” language and sentence starters to help students internalize comprehension strategies and apply them to independent reading.

The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the instructional strategies that middle and high school teachers used to support struggling readers. Data from 2,400 minutes of direct classroom observation and interviews of secondary content-area teachers revealed that explicit reading comprehension instruction was not a significant way in which teachers assisted struggling readers. In order to provide struggling readers with necessary content information , teachers relied on several compensatory strategies including didactic instruction , multiple presentations of information through multiple modalities , alternate sources of texts , and heterogeneous grouping. Implications about secondary content-area teachers' understanding of the benefits of reading comprehension instruction and about teachers' instructional priorities and responsibilities are discussed. Today's middle and high schools face a significant literacy crisis; the Alliance for Excellent Education c...

Young children are naturally curious; as they begin formal schooling, they come to our elementary classrooms with many pressing questions about the world around them. This chapter provides vignettes taken from an observational, participatory study of elementary English Language Arts classrooms which are inquiry-based and focused on student-generated questions. When teachers carve instructional time and space to honor these questions, reading instruction becomes student-centered and engaging as students follow their natural wonderings and curiosities. This chapter serves to address the natural connections that can exist between participatory research design and participatory classroom pedagogical practices.

In recent decades, researchers have indicated that U.S. schools have underexposed elementary grade students to informational text. The increased exposure to this genre should be a top instructional priority. In the present study, we explored 46 third-grade students’ attitudes toward and perceptions of informational text. Using three data sources (a student survey, individual interviews, and logs of independent reading time), we found that students read nonfiction text less frequently than fictional texts and preferred fictional to nonfiction text. Based on these findings, we provided suggestions on how teachers can help young readers diversify their text preferences.

The p urpose of this research was to explore preservice teachers’ knowledge bases regarding dyslexia as a language-based reading disorder. In a researcher-designed open-ended survey, 287 preservice teachers from Alabama, New York, and Virginia defined dyslexia, identified the characteristics of students with dyslexia, provided ideas for effective instruction for students with dyslexia, and cited the sources which informed their knowledge. Findings indicated that while preservice teachers held basic understandings of dyslexia as a reading disorder, they expressed confusion and misunderstandings about the specific phonological processing components of dyslexia. Suggestions for improving preservice teacher education regarding dyslexia are provided.

An experiment examined orthographic facilitation of vocabulary learning, that is, whether showing students spellings of novel words during learning helps them remember the words when spellings are no longer present. The purpose was to determine whether having students decode the spellings of vocabulary words improves word learning over passive exposure to spellings, and whether both treatments boost word memory compared to no spelling exposure. Low SES, urban first graders ( N  = 55) were randomly assigned to one of two word learning conditions: a decoding condition (printed words sounded out and blended) or an exposure without decoding condition (print present but no attention drawn to it). Students were taught the pronunciations and meanings of unfamiliar words over several test trials with feedback, one set with spellings present during learning but not when recall was tested, and one set with no spellings present. Results revealed that students remembered words better when spellings were seen than not seen during learning and on delayed posttests. Students who decoded spellings learned pronunciations and meanings better during the learning trials compared to students who only viewed spellings, but the advantage of decoding declined one and 7 days later. The favored explanation is that exposure to spellings activated grapho-phonemic connections to better secure spellings to pronunciations in memory, especially when students’ had decoded them. This was supported by a posttest showing that spellings were written more accurately when students had seen them than when they had not, with decoding producing better recall than exposure. Results suggest that teachers should incorporate spellings into their vocabulary instruction, and they should direct students to decode them to enhance learning.

Dyslexia is a common learning disability that renders children susceptible to poor health outcomes and many elements of socioeconomic difficulty. It is commonly undiagnosed until a child has repeatedly failed to learn to read in elementary school; this late diagnosis not only puts the child at an academic disadvantage, but also can be a precursor to psychiatric comorbidities such as anxiety and depression. Genetic and neuroimaging research have demonstrated that dyslexia is heritable and that it is undergirded by brain differences that are present even before reading instruction begins. Cognitive-behavioral research has revealed that there are early literacy skill deficits that represent red flags for dyslexia risk and can be measured at a preschool age. Altogether, this evidence points to dyslexia as a disability that can be flagged by a pediatrician prior to school entry, during a period of heightened brain plasticity when interventions are more likely to be effective. In this rev...

ABSTRACT Many preservice and early career teachers in the United States are White, middle class, and female and as such have little firsthand experience working with or growing up in the increasingly diverse population of U.S. schools. As a part of a graduate course in children’s literature, the objective of this study was to understand teacher candidates’ perceptions of what elements of their personal narratives and background were under-represented in children’s literature. Through course experiences and assignments, participants expanded their understanding of diversity, gained new resources for locating books, and developed empathy for their K-5 students.

Using a case study design, our research explored question generation as a reading comprehension strategy, focusing on the types of questions 4th- and 5th-grade students posed before, during, and after reading narrative text. The authors aimed to determine whether their participants are ready to pose the higher-level questions expected of them by the U.S. Common Core State Standards (2010). The results indicated that students asked mainly memory-based and convergent thinking questions, with far fewer divergent thinking and evaluative thinking questions. Instructional implications for classroom teachers include teacher modeling and demonstration of how to ask divergent and evaluative thinking questions through explicit instruction, mentorship, and more teacher use of language related to deeper thinking comprehension questions. These findings are explained in connection to the Common Core State Standards.

The study assessed the clinical utility of an invented spelling tool and determined whether invented spelling with linguistic manipulation at segmental and supra-segmental levels can be used to better identify reading difficulties. We conducted linguistic manipulation by using real and nonreal words, incorporating word stress, alternating the order of consonants and vowels, and alternating the number of syllables. We recruited 60 third-grade students, of which half were typical readers and half were poor readers. The invented spelling task consistently differentiated those with reading difficulties from typical readers. It explained unique variance in conventional spelling, but not in word reading. Word stress explained unique variance in both word reading and conventional spelling, highlighting the importance of addressing phonological awareness at the supra-segmental level. Poor readers had poorer performance when spelling both real and nonreal words and demonstrated substantial d...

ABSTRACT An essential element in teaching children to effectively comprehend text is the use of teacher-led think-alouds. The overarching objective of this study was to explore how to better prepare early career teachers to conduct think-alouds in their classrooms. Data from 31 teachers consisted of (1) questionnaires, (2) lesson plans, (3) lesson transcripts, and (4) written reflections. Teachers made significant growth in the quantity and quality of reading comprehension strategies they incorporated. Discussion focuses on the challenges the participants encountered when thinking aloud. Finally, suggestions for supporting teachers in effectively thinking aloud are provided.

When literacy instruction is driven by student-generated questions, students are able to dive deeper into text. This article explores the cognitive and motivational benefits of question generation to foster reading comprehension. The author presents classroom vignettes where students become inquisitive readers by posing their own questions. As they generate questions within and beyond the text, these authentic student inquiries promote reading comprehension and text engagement.

It seems taboo to question one's commitment to Teach For America and to one's students. But, in fact, Ms. Ness confesses to questioning her commitment nearly every day. WHEN I graduated from college, I joined Teach For America and so committed the next two years of my life to teaching in one of the nation's most underresourced school districts. Now part of the AmeriCorps service program, Teach For America has a clear mission: to give every child - regardless of race, ethnicity, background, or religion - the opportunity to attain an excellent education. Founded a decade ago, Teach For America places more than 800 college graduates every year in impoverished school districts in such urban areas as Baltimore, Los Angeles, and New York City and in such rural areas as the Mississippi Delta and the Rio Grande Valley. Teach For America teachers fill vacancies in districts that suffer from teacher shortages, most often taking the most challenging placements in the most difficult schools. Corps members go through an intensive five-week training program before they are placed in schools. In that training, they focus on theories of education, holding children to high expectations, practical ways of becoming an effective teacher, and leveling the playing field for students who lack the educational opportunities that children from better backgrounds take for granted. Corps members are hired directly by school districts, and many complete state credentialing programs during their two years of service. Upon the completion of their two- year commitment, more than 60% of corps members continue teaching, while the others change paths and move on to graduate schools or to other forms of employment. In my first year of teaching, I was assigned to Roosevelt Middle School in East Oakland, California, an extremely overcrowded school with an annual teacher retention rate of just 60%. The student body is 50% Asian, 25% Latino, and 25% African American. Roosevelt is located in a rough area that is notorious for drug use, and gangs are an ever- present force. Most of my students were not native speakers of English. Indeed, in that first year, my students spoke 10 languages, including Arabic, Cambodian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. Many were recent immigrants, and I was expected to teach them conversational and written English, as well as the state-mandated social studies curriculum. Although I had been told before I began my Teach For America commitment that I was about to experience a harsher reality than anything I had previously known, I still believed that teaching was a 9-to-3 job and that I could leave my work at school and keep my personal and professional lives totally separate. I thought I could bring my students into my classroom, shut the door, and leave the problems of their inner-city community outside. I believed that I could instill the love of learning in my students and that they would somehow be able to forget all the turmoil they faced in their lives. I vowed that my passion and enthusiasm for my children and for teaching would never diminish. I would never allow myself to suffer emotionally, as many first-year teachers do. I would stay positive and avoid the disillusionment that so many teachers feel. I would enter my classroom every day with the same energy and passion I started with in September. It wouldn't matter if it was a gloomy Thursday in late October or if I had been battling the flu for two weeks. I would never become the "worksheet teacher." Rather than slide grammar worksheets under my students' noses, I would have them build the pyramids out of sugar cubes. I set high expectations not only for my students, but for myself as well. In one swift transformation, I graduated from college, packed my belongings, and drove across the country to start life anew in an entirely unfamiliar environment, without the comforts of family, friends, and home. It was an exciting adventure at first - relocating, getting my first real job, and having the responsibilities of adult life. …

An essential element in teaching children to effectively comprehend text is the use of teacher-led think alouds. The overarching objective of this study was to explore how to better prepare preservice teachers to conduct think alouds in their future classrooms. Data from 97 preservice teachers consisted of several sources: (a) questionnaires, (b) lesson plans, (c) lesson transcripts, and (d) written reflections. Preservice teachers made significant growth in the quantity and quality of reading comprehension strategies they incorporated. Discussion focuses on the challenges that participants encountered when thinking aloud. Finally, suggestions for supporting preservice teachers in effectively thinking aloud are provided.

The purpose of this article is to explore the use of picture walks in narrative and informational text as a method to encourage question generation. This article overviews the instructional benefits of having students generate their own questions before, during, and after reading. Featured are two classrooms where students pose questions through narrative and informational text features.

This study examined the effects of reading mode (oral and silent) and text genre (narrative and expository) on fourth graders’ reading comprehension. While controlling for prior reading ability of 48 participants, we measured comprehension. Using a repeated measured design, data were analyzed using analysis of covariance, paired t-tests, and correlational statistics. Results revealed that silent reading was stronger for narrative passages in retell measures, but there was no difference for comprehension questions. The expository passages revealed no difference between the reading modes. Comprehension of narrative texts was consistently stronger than expository texts in both silent and oral reading.

The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the instructional strategies that middle and high school teachers used to support struggling readers. Data from 2,400 minutes of direct classroom observation and interviews of secondary content-area teachers revealed that explicit reading comprehension instruction was not a significant way in which teachers assisted struggling readers. In order to provide struggling readers with necessary content information , teachers relied on several compensatory strategies including didactic instruction , multiple presentations of information through multiple modalities , alternate sources of texts , and heterogeneous grouping. Implications about secondary content-area teachers' understanding of the benefits of reading comprehension instruction and about teachers' instructional priorities and responsibilities are discussed. Today's middle and high schools face a significant literacy crisis; the Alliance for Excellent Education cites that 8.7 million fourth- through 12th graders struggle to read their textbooks (Kamil, 2003). These struggling readers do not read on grade level and encounter significant challenges with comprehension, the process in which readers "extract and construct meaning through interaction and involvement with written language" (Snow, 2002, p. 11). Struggling secondary readers are at risk for a life of literacy deficiencies, with

It seems taboo to question one's commitment to Teach For America and to one's students. But, in fact, Ms. Ness confesses to questioning her commitment nearly every day. WHEN I graduated from college, I joined Teach For America and so committed the next two years of my life to teaching in one of the nation's most underresourced school districts. Now part of the AmeriCorps service program, Teach For America has a clear mission: to give every child - regardless of race, ethnicity, background, or religion - the opportunity to attain an excellent education. Founded a decade ago, Teach For America places more than 800 college graduates every year in impoverished school districts in such urban areas as Baltimore, Los Angeles, and New York City and in such rural areas as the Mississippi Delta and the Rio Grande Valley. Teach For America teachers fill vacancies in districts that suffer from teacher shortages, most often taking the most challenging placements in the most difficult schools. Corps members go through an intensive five-week training program before they are placed in schools. In that training, they focus on theories of education, holding children to high expectations, practical ways of becoming an effective teacher, and leveling the playing field for students who lack the educational opportunities that children from better backgrounds take for granted. Corps members are hired directly by school districts, and many complete state credentialing programs during their two years of service. Upon the completion of their two- year commitment, more than 60% of corps members continue teaching, while the others change paths and move on to graduate schools or to other forms of employment. In my first year of teaching, I was assigned to Roosevelt Middle School in East Oakland, California, an extremely overcrowded school with an annual teacher retention rate of just 60%. The student body is 50% Asian, 25% Latino, and 25% African American. Roosevelt is located in a rough area that is notorious for drug use, and gangs are an ever- present force. Most of my students were not native speakers of English. Indeed, in that first year, my students spoke 10 languages, including Arabic, Cambodian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. Many were recent immigrants, and I was expected to teach them conversational and written English, as well as the state-mandated social studies curriculum. Although I had been told before I began my Teach For America commitment that I was about to experience a harsher reality than anything I had previously known, I still believed that teaching was a 9-to-3 job and that I could leave my work at school and keep my personal and professional lives totally separate. I thought I could bring my students into my classroom, shut the door, and leave the problems of their inner-city community outside. I believed that I could instill the love of learning in my students and that they would somehow be able to forget all the turmoil they faced in their lives. I vowed that my passion and enthusiasm for my children and for teaching would never diminish. I would never allow myself to suffer emotionally, as many first-year teachers do. I would stay positive and avoid the disillusionment that so many teachers feel. I would enter my classroom every day with the same energy and passion I started with in September. It wouldn't matter if it was a gloomy Thursday in late October or if I had been battling the flu for two weeks. I would never become the "worksheet teacher." Rather than slide grammar worksheets under my students' noses, I would have them build the pyramids out of sugar cubes. I set high expectations not only for my students, but for myself as well. In one swift transformation, I graduated from college, packed my belongings, and drove across the country to start life anew in an entirely unfamiliar environment, without the comforts of family, friends, and home. It was an exciting adventure at first - relocating, getting my first real job, and having the responsibilities of adult life. …