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Reading is an important component of academic success and a skill required for many adult responsibilities. Many strategies exist that claim to increase reading comprehension. However, in contrast to foundational reading skills (e.g., vocabulary, fluency, decoding), there is relatively little research that has been done on reading comprehension strategies. This study investigated the use of self-regulated strategy development paired with the “RAP” paraphrasing strategy as a way to increase reading comprehension. Participants were three sixth-grade students from a midwestern state. Results indicate that use of the RAP paraphrasing strategy increased reading comprehension.

In the field of special education, attrition plays a major role in a persistent teacher shortage problem. Over the past few decades, researchers in general education and special education have investigated the various reasons why new teachers leave the field and ways in which they can be better supported to stay in their positions. Despite the increased focus on why new special education teachers leave the field, the knowledge related to teacher attrition in special education is still somewhat limited when compared with the field of general education. For example, previous research has heavily relied on survey research to understand teacher attrition, but these methods may limit some of the important information related to the complexity of why a teacher might leave the field or their job within the first few years. In this study, the authors conduct several Nominal Group Technique (NGT) focus groups to learn more about the perceived needs of new special education teachers. Focus groups are held with three specific groups, preservice special education teachers, new special education teachers, and school administrators to further investigate the potential differences in perceptions about the needs and roles of new special education teachers.

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This review examines interventions intended to improve the literacy functioning of adolescent students with emotional and/or behavior disorders. Seventeen studies met inclusion criteria and included a variety of interventions designed to affect a variety of literacy areas, including spelling, writing, and reading fluency. Findings from these studies indicate that, overall, several different intervention types produced increases across areas of literacy functioning. However, both participant and setting characteristics were poorly described and were not representative of the population with emotional and/or behavioral disorders. The lack of research on interventions to increase adolescent literacy limits the generalizability of the results to a broader population. Considerations for practice implications and future research are discussed.

Reading comprehension is an important component of academic success and a skill required for many activities in school. However, little is known about effective reading comprehension interventions for younger students. This study investigated the effects of the paraphrasing strategy taught using the self-regulated strategy development model. Participants were six third grade students identified as fluent readers who experienced difficulty with comprehension. All instruction for the six participants was one on one. Results indicate that the use of the RAP paraphrasing strategy increased reading comprehension as measured by the percentage of text recall and short-answer questions (RAP is a three-step strategy: Read a paragraph, Ask myself “What was the main idea and two details?” and Put it into my own words). Ideas for future research and implications are discussed.

When providing clinical services for late talkers, determining an appropriate interventionist is a key early decision. Although researchers have noted the effectiveness of parent-implemented interventions for some populations, few have specifically addressed late talkers. Late talkers are of considerable interest to early service providers and parents due to limited evidence-based intervention components with this population and the notion that early language deficits are significant risk factors for many disorders. The present study purpose is to describe general features of current research and ascertain intervention providers’ effectiveness. A systematic literature review resulted in eight studies reporting on seven data sets ( N = 175 participants). Findings indicate treatment provided by either parents or clinicians can improve late talkers’ communication skills. Parent-implemented intervention emerged as potentially more effective than clinician-directed service provision based on outcome measures of targeted skills following treatment dosage. Factors limiting generalization of these findings should be addressed in future investigations.

Mrs. Brown is the special education teacher for the third-grade team at Casey Elementary School. Recently, the team realized that some of their students had problems with reading comprehension. As a part of their response to intervention (RTI) program, the team assesses students' reading fluency every 2 months using Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS;Good & Kaminski, 2002) to ensure students are improving and meeting district benchmarks. The team noticed that the majority of the third graders were meeting their fluency benchmarks and could decode at grade level, thus meeting their instructional goals. However, they also noticed that a few students were well behind their peers in reading comprehension skills despite the fact that their fluency was at or above district benchmarks. This came as a surprise to the team because they had always thought comprehension of text automatically followed fluent reading. They knew they had to address this issue immediately so these students wouldn't fall behind their peers; however, they weren't sure how to improve the comprehension skills of these students. Mrs. Brown suggested teaching the students a reading comprehension strategy. She suggested that they look for a simple and flexible comprehension strategy. They needed a strategy that could be taught individually or in small groups in the general education classroom or resource room. The strategy should also be one that students can master quickly. In addition, Mrs. Brown suggested teaching the strategy using the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD;Harris & Graham, 1996) model because she knew that how a strategy is taught is a critical factor in its success or failure (Reid & Lienemann, 2006).