Comprehensive Reading Intervention in Grades 3-8: Fostering Word Learning, Comprehension, and Motivation

Lynn M. Gelzheiser, EdD, is Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, Division of Special Education, at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Dr. Gelzheiser's professional career has focused on students with learning disabilities. Her research has examined both instructional and system-level variables that affect the reading and mathematics achievement of students in special education settings. Most recently, she has focused on the efficacy of the Interactive Strategies Approach--Extended for improving reading achievement, content vocabulary knowledge, and motivation in third- to eighth-grade struggling readers. Donna M. Scanlon, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her research focuses on the relationships between instructional characteristics and success in learning to read and on developing and evaluating approaches to preventing and remediating reading difficulties. Her work has contributed to the emergence of response to intervention as a process for preventing reading difficulties and avoiding inappropriate and inaccurate learning disability classifications. Dr. Scanlon is a developer of the Interactive Strategies Approach and the Interactive Strategies Approach--Extended. Laura Hallgren-Flynn, MSEd, is a language arts coordinator and reading specialist in Guilderland Central School District in Guilderland, New York. She has worked as a part-time instructor in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning and as a research associate at the Child Research and Study Center, both at the University at Albany, State University of New York. In her work at the research center, Ms. Hallgren-Flynn has helped develop reading interventions and instructional materials for teachers, supervised intervention teachers, and provided professional development to preservice and practicing teachers learning to implement the Interactive Strategies Approach and the Interactive Strategies Approach--Extended. Peggy Connors, MS, has been working in the field of elementary education since the 1990s. Her experience includes serving as classroom teacher, reading specialist, educational research assistant, teacher educator, and, most recently, independent literacy consultant. Mrs. Connors has been associated with research studies on the Interactive Strategies Approach and the Interactive Strategies Approach--Extended conducted at the Child Research and Study Center, University at Albany, State University of New York.