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In this article, I showcase an informational text reading comprehension unit that centers on text features commonly found in science textbooks. I taught this unit to a sixth-grade class and highlighted the work samples of three focal students here. The overarching question that guided this work was as follows: How can I focus my instruction on three common text structures in informational texts: compare and contrast, cause and effect, and description? Moreover, I show how students’ interaction with informational texts, such as engaging activities, note-taking, and vocabulary, aided in comprehension.

Within the context of schooling, conceptions of literacy are increasingly being associated with the capacity for learners to engage in disciplinary meaning making through face-to-face deliberation and dialogue. In this commentary, the author explores how a conversational infrastructure—meaning routines for talk, norms, scaffolds, and a repertoire of talk moves—can help teachers foster a discourse community in their classrooms. Such an infrastructure can support students of all backgrounds to explore, through discourse, how claims are made by members of a discipline, what counts as evidence, and the ground rules by which members of a knowledge-building community can engage one another in justifying certain points of view while acknowledging alternatives. This vision is presented as an alternative to the unspoken rules and rituals that sociologists refer to as doing school, which serve to constrain academically productive talk in many classrooms.

This article describes a recent teacher researcher's investigation of digitized literature study at a Midwestern U.S. high school during the 2015–2016 school year that explored the use of digital literacies to support student‐centered literary analysis. Digital literacy practices position literature students to connect with texts in authentic ways. In their reading of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, students used the video game Minecraft to re‐create scenes, respond to literary elements, and analyze deeper meanings. The analyses of one particular student resulted in powerful explorations of identity. Using qualitative research tools, the author analyzed her case through observations, interviews, and student‐created artifacts to understand how this popular technology could facilitate literary analysis at the secondary level.

To positively influence students’ behavior and social relationships in the school and community settings, teachers can support students during early interventions and active conversations. Conversations held during class time that use picturebooks and restorative practice activities can be an appropriate way to support student learning and engagement. Lessons and activities can be implemented through any subject and integrated into classroom discussions to support students’ relationships, personal growth, well‐being, and behaviors. Incorporating discussions surrounding picturebooks with specific messages relating to social skills or situations in the classroom or community can support a restorative justice framework. The authors present ideas and activities relating to using picturebooks while upholding a restorative environment.

Eye‐tracking studies have indicated that there are different kinds of silent reading. Simply having eyes on text does not always result in adequate comprehension. Understanding common eye‐tracking measures that distinguish productive reading behaviors can help teachers promote better reading habits among students. This research synthesis highlights the need to focus on reading goals and mindful reading, rather than merely promoting eyes or time on text. The authors provide several instructional options for promoting mindful reading based on eye‐tracking research and suggest ways to coach a more metacognitive approach to comprehension.

Many students plagiarize unintentionally. Students are told that plagiarizing is claiming someone else's ideas or information as their own, and they are told to cite sources because failure to do so is dishonest and plagiarism has serious consequences. So, students are told to paraphrase, not plagiarize, but are they taught explicitly how to paraphrase? Even when a writer summarizes a source, plagiarism can result if the writer stays too close to the wording or sentence structure of the original source. Plagiarism can be avoided through students’ use of the RRLC (read, reread, list, compose) strategy. When students use the RRLC strategy to compose a summary and to paraphrase content from a bulleted list, they write using their own unique syntax, thus avoiding plagiarism.

Readers Theatre has been used to introduce critical issues, promote fluency among English learners and non–English learners, teach vocabulary, and integrate content in the classroom. Previous studies of Readers Theatre application have demonstrated an increase in student reading fluency, motivation, and confidence. The focus of this systemic approach to the use of Readers Theatre is to promote comprehension and word study through a gradual release of responsibility model. The authors describe how and why this framework was developed and provide recommendations for implementation.

Implementation of digital literacies in secondary literature study can result in increased textual engagement and explorations of identity. The author describes the results of practitioner research at a Midwestern U.S. high school in which senior AP students created short films as a way to analyze literature circle texts. The purpose of the study was to understand how video storytelling can support young adult readers’ literary analysis. The author used qualitative content analysis to analyze a focal participant's screenplay and film, as well as his transcribed commentary and interviews. Findings showed that his film reflected analyses that demonstrated engagement with literature, increased appetite for reading, and text-driven social interaction.

The case of a 17‐year‐old deaf student serves as a means of identifying specific home and school supports that had facilitated robust language and literacy development across the life span. Data consist of observations of the student while reading and thinking aloud, as direct evidence of proficiency, as well as follow‐up student and parent interviews that elicited an insider perspective regarding factors that had contributed to successful development from early childhood to adolescence. The authors discuss the importance of early and consistent exposure to language via the signed and auditory modalities and early and ongoing exposure to literacy‐based activities and explicit instruction in both home and school settings. The findings support several practices that can help ensure successful language and literacy development for deaf or hard of hearing students.

Early elementary teachers are under great pressure to teach all children to read and write at highly proficient levels while simultaneously emphasizing STEM instruction to prepare students for the 21st century. Traditionally, literacy skills are taught in isolation from science instruction. However, reading and writing are the perfect tools to use for inquiry and reasoning, for creating a hypothesis, and for gathering, evaluating, and analyzing data. In this article, the authors describe how literacy and science instruction can be merged to create innovative, stimulating, and enriching learning experiences for young children.