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Purpose – The chapter describes how teacher preparation programs can design effective off-campus clinical programs. Information provided is applicable to clinical practicums, capstone experiences, and to individual course assignments at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Methodology/Approach – The author describes the foundational components involved in designing a high-quality off-campus clinical-based program. These components include selecting and building a partnership with an off-campus site, using forms, fees, space, and materials, engaging families, aligning assignments to course content, grading, supervision, and acquiring funding.

Practical implications – In addition to the foundational components involved in designing an effective off-campus clinic, the chapters describes a university-based model that uses two different off-campus clinical-based experiences that support community-based programs and local area schools.

Social implications – The chapter addresses the need for teacher preparation programs to build partnerships with off-campus community-based programs to better prepare teachers to meet the literacy demands of all students, particularly students living and learning in urban communities.

Reading comprehension levels of elementary students have not significantly improved in the twenty-first century, and, as a result, the need for systematic and intensive reading interventions is as high as ever. Literacy clinics are an ideal setting for struggling readers to experience success through the implementation of a cyclical approach to individual assessment, planning, instruction and evaluation. Yet, additional research is needed to create current and relevant models of literacy clinics for today’s diverse learners. This paper aimed to measure the effects of an experimental approach to reading comprehension instruction for third graders within an off-campus literacy clinic; the intervention involved a scope and sequence of comprehension strategies in which students had to demonstrate skill mastery before progressing to the next skill.

This investigation used a classic controlled experiment design by randomly assigning half of the literacy clinic participants (30) to either a control or experimental group. The previous year-end’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores of the participants were used as indicators (or base lines) of each participant’s preexisting level of reading achievement.

There was a statistically higher achievement rate in the experimental group as measured by the CRCT statewide assessment with a Cohen’s effect size value (d = 0.79) suggested a moderate to high practical significance.

This study’s findings are relevant to those involved in literacy remediation, including literacy clinic directors, preservice educators and curriculum directors.

This paper is one of a kind in that it is the first to trial a scope and sequence of evidence-based comprehension strategies for comprehension improvement in primary school students. The findings call for major changes to thinking about how we improve students’ reading skills by focusing on depth rather than breadth.

Purpose – This historical perspective highlights the evolution of reading clinics (also called literacy labs, centers, etc.) from medical-type clinics to instructional powerhouses for struggling readers. Of particular interest, also, is the development of teacher expertise while participating in reading clinics, particularly in the areas of reflection, a critical view of assessments, and using assessment to inform instruction. Furthermore, this chapter traces the history of research that has come out of reading clinics.

Design/Methodology/Approach – A brief history of reading clinics since the 1920s is followed by a deep examination of some of the themes that have shaped more recent reading clinics and research that has emerged from the clinics: assessment, mandates, teacher reflection, and twenty-first Century Literacies.

Practical implications – This chapter offers key information for stakeholders who are designing, establishing, or refining a reading clinic, either university-based or K-12 school-based.

Social implications – Struggling readers and writers deserve and need experiences that help them acquire literacy skills, including reading and writing for twenty-first century purposes. Teachers need support as they navigate mandates from educational policy-makers, enhance their skills as literacy leaders and literacy coaches, and reflect on best practices.

Purpose – The chapter provides the reader with an overview of how teacher preparation programs can utilize a school-based reading/literacy clinic model within university coursework. Information on how to successfully scaffold teacher candidates into becoming more reflective educators through the use of a reading clinic model is provided. Details for partnering with community organizations to provide tutoring support for struggling readers is illustrated.

Methodology/approach – The research support for utilizing tutoring programs is shared. Implications for teacher preparation programs seeking to develop literacy experiences for preservice and practicing educators are depicted. This book chapter describes a framework for establishing and maintaining tutoring partnerships within communities.

Practical implications – The author provides examples of effective community partnerships with suggestions and techniques for developing new programs and/or partnerships. Practical tips for establishing and maintaining tutoring programs which are composed of innovative practices are included.

Social implications – The key element of effective tutoring programs is to improve student achievement in literacy. Educators must build meaningful and thought-provoking literacy practices into the tutoring setting. A model for using a tutoring approach supportive of struggling readers is described. The components for effectively designing and preserving a reading clinics program are shared.

Purpose – To provide educators with an overview of strategies that can be incorporated into clinical settings that foster vocabulary and comprehension development.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter highlights underlying themes of reading failure, benefits of large vocabularies and comprehension skills, and components for remediation/instruction.

Findings – Content provides detailed information on designing clinics that prepare students to meet the vocabulary and comprehension demands of reading in the 21st century.

Research limitations/implications – The chapter highlights the most reliable and practical reading strategies that are fundamental to every reader's advancement.

Practical implications – This chapter serves as a resource for all clinical instructors, providing a wealth of ideas for incorporation into their clinics and classrooms.

Originality/value of paper – This compilation of vocabulary and comprehension strategies works in tandem to produce highly skilled readers who can in turn learn independently.

Purpose – This chapter profiles a summer reading clinic that utilizes graduate students (clinicians) to provide diagnostic literacy intervention for students in grades one through six who struggle with reading and writing. The chapter asserts that struggling readers can become successful when instruction is designed around research-based principles of teaching and learning. A description is provided of the instructional routine employed at the clinic that focuses on fluency and has been shown to assist students in making significant improvements in their literacy progress.

Methodology/approach – The authors describe how teachers and intervention specialists work together to provide an effective intervention to the students that emphasizes a specific guided oral fluency routine known as the Fluency Development Lesson (FDL). Each step in the FDL is explained. Prior to instruction, clinicians administered an informal reading inventory to gain baseline data about the students in the areas of word recognition, fluency, and comprehension and to subsequently inform instruction. During the fifth and final week of the program, posttests were administered. T-Tests indicated that students made significant progress (p <.001) from pretest to posttest in all areas measured.

Limitations – The authors acknowledge that the study is small in scale, the intervention period was limited, and the results may have been influenced by outside factors beyond their control.

Research implications – The study's primary purpose was to improve the reading outcomes of the students involved. The reading clinic setting is ideal for further FDL research including its impact on older students and the incorporation of digital texts on student performance. Additionally, readers of the chapter are encouraged to apply the methods and processes to their own classrooms.

Originality/value – This chapter shows how a summer reading clinic strives to apply research-based, common sense factors that matter most in teaching struggling students to read in intervention and classroom settings. Some of the factors such as the importance of instructional routine, time-on-task, text selection, targeted teaching, and instructional talk are considered key to the successful implementation of the FDL and the clinical experience.

Purpose – This chapter describes a university-based reading clinic for struggling readers. Created over 40 years ago, this reading clinic continually evolves as it is founded on well-grounded theory and the most current research. The purpose of the chapter is to explain this foundation and how it has informed the structure and day-to-day operations of a successful clinic program.

Methodology/approach – The reading clinic described in this chapter is based largely on the theoretical premises of self-determination theory. This theory has been widely researched in a variety of fields and contexts, including educational settings. Self-determination theory research and reading research, conducted from a multitude of perspectives, provide support for appropriate practices designed to create a motivating classroom environment.

Practical implications – The ideas presented in this chapter show how research and theory can be successfully applied to classroom settings. The author describes various ways in which the theory and research have led to specific, practical decisions in the reading clinic setting. Broadening the use of these practices to regular classroom contexts is also discussed.

Social implications – Despite research that has established how teachers can create a meaningful, motivating classroom environment, unsound practices continue to be used in classrooms everywhere. If, as most educators claim, we want students to become independent thinkers who are able to contribute meaningfully to society, then we need to seriously examine the controlling, performance-oriented, competitive practices that are typical in many classrooms today. We must move toward creating classrooms where the focus is on learning and where children enjoy ownership of the learning process. This chapter describes a program for struggling readers that operates from this stance.

Purpose – The chapter provides the reader with an overview of the impact technology has on literacy education and makes a case for utilizing the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework for incorporating instructional technology in the reading clinic. The focus then shifts to how instructional technologies can be utilized to enhance literacy learning during a one-on-one tutoring program.

Methodology/approach – The author describes the changing nature of literacy instruction and the need for 21st century skills for teacher candidates and the students they serve. Pedagogical possibilities and instructional expectations are shared through discussion of the technology activities used by teaching candidates participating in school-based reading clinics.

Practical implications – In addition to descriptions of how teacher candidates utilized technology within their reading clinic instruction, the author notes affordances and challenges of integrating technology in one-on-one instructional settings. Instructional uses of eReaders, laptops, and iPads for literacy learning are noted in the chapter for possible replication in other reading clinic programs. Future directions for additional research are included.

Social implications – The chapter suggests how the university reading clinic can provide opportunities for teacher candidates to work collaboratively with students to incorporate technology into literacy learning activities. Working with technology in a tutoring environment serves as a foundation for incorporating digital literacy instruction in teacher candidates’ future classrooms and ensuring that students have the 21st century skills necessary for college and employment.

Purpose – This chapter describes the structure and environment of the Cougar Literacy Clinic, the theoretical framework, and the transferred and transformed knowledge and practices that support the constituents as a community of learners.

Theoretical perspective/methodology – Our research embraces theories of transfer and transformation, self-extending systems, intersubjectivity, social constructivism, social learning, and social cultural that helps to explain how children, families, teachers, other educators, administrators, professors, and community members learn and benefit through mutual interactions, as they find ways to help each other become better thinkers and decision makers. The data were categorized into four types of practices from the clinical experience that have transferred to and transformed the school and community. These categories of practices include assessment, instruction, coaching and consultation, and family–school–community literacy connections. The data analysis and interpretation demonstrate the importance of having a shared understanding regarding literacy development, learning, and teaching that enhances each member's intellectual and academic growth.

Practical implications – Our Cougar Literacy Clinic innovations, built on beliefs of shared understanding, can be a model for both existing and newly established clinics that are striving to transform the thinking of each member involved. During assessment practices, each of the constituents will learn to make informed decisions on the selection of assessments and analysis of assessment data, confidently identify their own and others strengths and needs, and provide constructive feedback. In the areas of instruction, reciprocal coaching, and family–school–community literacy connections, each of the constituents will learn to focus on strengths and prior knowledge, scaffold learning, and pose and respond to questions.

Purpose – The chapter provides the reader with an overview of the UCF Enrichment Programs in Literacy that includes a year-round reading clinic with undergraduate and graduate students serving as clinicians and a summer Digital Storytelling Camp. The focus of the chapter is on the development and evolution of these programs, with an emphasis on the role of coaching in the clinic process.

Methodology/approach – The authors describe how they used Bean's Levels of Coaching Complexity (2004), adapting it to their clinical setting, to meet the current high demand for reading coaches in schools, and to strengthen their reading program courses and practicum experiences.

Practical implications – In addition to providing a comprehensive overview of the UCF Enrichment Programs in Literacy, this chapter includes the nuts and bolts of how the authors “coach for success” in the reading clinic. This involves coaching for success during data collection, in the analysis and decision-making process, in the delivery of tutoring, and beyond the clinic setting. Along with the tutoring process, specific teaching tools (including student samples) and photographs are shared in order to allow for replication by educators who read this chapter.

Social implications – This chapter suggests how reading programs in colleges of education can reexamine their existing field experiences to develop a more deliberate model intended to (1) extend clinician skills in reading assessment, diagnosis, and instructional delivery; (2) promote self-reflection and collaborative professional learning; and (3) provide mentoring experiences that can be replicated in school and district settings by graduate student clinicians as they acquire new leadership roles and responsibilities. This chapter proposes programs that offer consistent, affordable instructional support in literacy for children and families in the surrounding community.