Translating Research Into Practice (TRIP)
Research One-Pagers for Teachers
The TRIP Fellowship program focuses on building teachers’ knowledge of empirical research. TRIP Fellows use this knowledge to translate cutting-edge scholarship into practical one-pagers for teachers, making a lasting impact on literacy education. Through this initiative, the Literacy Lab has created a library of free resources available for download:
Adolescent LiteracyIncreasing Competence and Confidence for Middle School Students with DisabilitiesLovett and colleagues completed a randomized control trial of sixth, seventh and eighth graders with a reading disability receiving intervention. Middle School Students’ Motivation Fluctuates Across Content AreasResearchers studied 161 sixth-eighth grade students in under-resourced, parochial schools in the Midwest United States for fluctuations in reading motivation through science, social studies, math and English classes. Literacy Strategies Improve Adolescent Content KnowledgeRoberts and colleagues studied the effectiveness of PACT (Promoting Adolescents’ Comprehension of Text), a set of instructional practices to engage students with texts in the content areas. It is intended to supplement, not replace, a teacher’s curriculum. Adolescent Inference Skills Can Improve Through Interventions Led by Humans, but Not ComputersBarnes and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial of an inferential reading comprehension intervention for middle school students. The intervention program, Connect-IT, was created by the researchers and included 26 lessons that focused on four specific types of inferences in both narrative and expository texts: pronoun reference, text-connecting inferences, knowledge-based inferences, and inferring word meaning from context. |
ComprehensionTeachers Need to Help Develop Executive Function Skills in Their StudentsResearchers expanded on studies that show the correlation between executive function and reading abilities. Questioning Enhances Inference GenerationResearchers conducted a study exploring the inferences made by children with varying comprehension skills during and after reading, aiming to understand children’s ability to maintain understanding throughout a text and the influence of working memory (WM). Integrating Literacy & Content Is Effective in First GradeResearchers examined a content-based literacy unit on first graders' ability to acquire science-based knowledge and vocabulary, and their engagement with and comprehension of text. Metacognition MattersResearchers conducted a study exploring whether performance differences exist between proficient and poor readers on implicit text information, aiming to explore the effect of meta-cognitive monitoring on predicted reading performance. Word Study Impacts Comprehension for All StudentsZhang and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of how reading comprehension is impacted by morphological awareness—the understanding of how words can be broken down into smaller units of meaning. Active Ingredients in Reading Intervention: Intentionality with Learning StrategiesResearchers wanted to know whether there was a single comprehension strategy, or combination of strategies, that would be most helpful to teach to students with reading difficulties in 3rd through 12th grades. Teaching Text Structure Boosts ComprehensionThe authors conducted a meta-analysis to assess the effects of text structure instruction on reading comprehension in the upper elementary grades. Their analysis covered 44 studies, focused on both informational and narrative text structure interventions. |
GeneralProgress Monitoring in Kindergarten is ImportantA longitudinal study was conducted involving 426 kindergartners from diverse backgrounds and linguistic abilities. The primary objective was to monitor the reading progress of students identified as at risk for reading difficulties. Teachers’ Small Group Practices Need RevisitingResearchers conducted an observational study to examine the extent to which teacher perceptions of students’ behavioral skills and academic skills influence how much small group time is provided in grades first-third. Time and a Variety of Instructional Practices Lead to Increased ReadingTegmark and colleagues conducted a mixed-methods study to understand the relationship between teachers’ instructional practices and the amount of students’ in-class reading of connected text. Tegmark and colleagues conducted a mixed methods study to understand the relationship between teachers’ instructional practices and the amount of students’ in-class reading of connected text. Is Digital Reading a Friend or Foe for Students?Researchers completed a meta-analysis on the relationship between leisurely digital reading habits and reading comprehension. UFLI: Assessing Efficacy and Teacher AdherenceResearchers executed a quasi-experimental design with pre and post-tests given to an experimental group and baseline equivalence. Embracing Literacy Shifts and Understanding That Explicit Instruction is Vital for StudentsResearchers employed the Classroom Observations of Student-Teacher Interactions (COSTI) tool to assess explicit instruction interactions between teachers and students. Through this tool, they observed four key instructional moves: teacher demonstrations, student independent practice, student errors, and teacher-provided corrective feedback. Professional Development: What Works and What Doesn’tResearchers explored the relationship between teachers’ knowledge of reading and student learning, with a specific focus on teachers’ knowledge and self-efficacy beliefs in relation to their self-reported literacy instructional practices and lesson plans. UFLI Boosts Learning OutcomesResearchers conducted a study on the effect of an instructional reading skills program on 1429 Kindergarten students and 1338 First Grade students in a north central Florida district over a period of two years. LETRS is Not Enough to Change Student OutcomesResearchers examined the relationship between Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) and student reading achievement across schools in Colorado. They compared averages of third-grade reading achievement outcomes in 113 schools that exclusively used LETRS versus 222 schools that used a variety of literacy professional development programs. When Social Media Shapes Instruction: Credibility, Implications, and CautionsIn this two-phase qualitative study, Rowe et al. (2025) collected 156 Science of Reading (SOR) videos on TikTok over a 4-week period.
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InterventionInterventions for Upper Elementary Struggling Readers - What Works?Researchers, Donegan and Wanzek, performed a review and analysis of research on reading intervention that occurred between 1988-2019. The evaluated research focused on upper elementary (grades 4 and 5). Token Economies Boost Engagement and Participation in Small Group Reading
Roberts and colleagues investigated the impact of embedding behavioral supports into a small group reading lesson for 4th grade students with reading and behavioral difficulties.
Beyond "Too Hard": Unlocking complex texts through the power of the re-readDowns and Young conducted a small group intervention study examining the effect of a repeated-reading fluency protocol, “Read Like Us,” on 174 third- and fourth- grade students who were reading below benchmark. The Read Like Us protocol consisted of five repeated reads: teacher read aloud, echo reading, choral group reading, partner choral reading, and then an individual read or performance read. Strengthening Readers Theater Through Phrase-Cued TextsIn this study, researchers examined the effects of readers theatre with phrase-cued texts on oral reading fluency of ten first- to third-grade students who were not meeting grade-level expectations. |
Multilingual LearnersFrom Research to Practice: Strengthening Literacy for English Learners Through The Science of ReadingIn this qualitative study, researchers examined educators’ perspectives on the Science of Reading (SoR) for English Learners (ELs) in VPK–grade 3 and how professional learning influenced instruction. Six participants included teachers, instructional coaches, and paraprofessionals who completed job-embedded professional development through Project ELITE, a training program focused on SoR and evidence-based instruction for ELs. How the Simple View of Reading Influences Spanish Language LearnersThis study examined the two components of the Simple View of Reading framework: decoding and linguistic comprehension (i.e., making meaning from spoken language), which contribute to Spanish heritage language (HL) learners' reading comprehension. Researchers categorized 74 Spanish HL learners, ages 4-9, into two groups based on their reading stage: early readers or pre-readers. |
Oral LanguageTeachers Don’t Focus on Oral Storytelling Even Though it’s ImportantResearchers conducted an observational study to observe the amount, type and quality of narrative instruction (story comprehension, oral storytelling, story writing) in grades first-fourth general education classrooms. Oral Language Instruction is Essential to Avoid the Fourth Grade SlumpAs a follow-up research from 1990, Terry et al examined oral language and reading skills in a sample of students aged six-11. From Simple to Complex, Student Talk is Key to Improving Reading ComprehensionConnor and colleagues were interested in the relationship between student talk in literacy lessons and Reading Comprehension (RC) gains. The researchers coded video recorded lessons from 12 2nd-3rd grade classrooms over the course of a school year. Their aim was to code types of teacher and student talk in the classroom. |
VocabularyVocabulary Instruction is More Than Defining WordsResearchers created a curriculum that included read aloud lessons, interactive activities for teaching words, songs and games to reinforce the words, and resources for families. They compared the results to a control group that read the same texts, but did not use the rest of the teaching methods. Latin is the Root of MorphologyCrosson and colleagues conducted an experimental study to investigate the effects of morphological analysis skills intervention on word analysis and reading comprehension performance for middle school-aged multilingual students. Seventy percent of the students spoke Spanish as their first language. Teaching the Meaning of the Word Helps With Word Reading Accuracy and FluencyTwenty-two (22) Students in grades fourth-fifth who were formally diagnosed with either dyslexia or a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) received 12 daily one-on-one 45 minute reading intervention lessons. Word Study Impacts Comprehension for All StudentsZhang and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of how reading comprehension is impacted by morphological awareness—the understanding of how words can be broken down into smaller units of meaning. This study aimed to better understand how morphological awareness both directly and indirectly affects comprehension through word reading and vocabulary knowledge. Teaching Vocabulary: More Than Just DefinitionsResearchers conducted a 24-week quasi-experimental intervention study involving 273 children ages 5–6 in the United Kingdom to investigate whether different types of vocabulary instruction could improve oral vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and word reading skills. Making Meaning Stick: The Power of Vocabulary NetworksIn this study, researchers examined the impact of first- and second-grade students’ content-specific vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension after participating in a content literacy intervention, the Model of Reading Engagement (MORE).
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WritingTrap With SRSD Enhances Comprehension and ConfidenceThe authors conducted an experimental study to investigate the effects of a paraphrasing strategy on the text comprehension of fourth-grade striving readers. Explicit Writing Instruction is EffectiveThe study compared three groups of 5th grade students that were learning to write opinion letters: Students that received Explicit Writing Instruction (EWI) and had peer feedback, students that received EWI without peer feedback, and a control group that mostly used a writing workshop approach. |