1 Final Draft Version: Knight, B. A., & Galletly, S. A. ;ϮϬϭ6Ϳ. The effects of aŶ iŶterveŶtioŶ prograŵ oŶ ŵiddle school studeŶts’ literacy skills. Special Education Perspectives, 25(1), 7-17. The Effects of an Intervention Program on Middle School Students’ Literacy Skills Bruce Allen Knight & Susan A. Galletly, Central Queensland University Abstract The Central Queensland University Accelerated Metacognition Literacy Intensive Tuition (CAMLIT) program was implemented to address issues that impact on middle-school students’ sophisticated literacy development where they use higher-level language and thinking skills for comprehension. The CAMLIT program aims to build students’ literacy skills. The aim of the research reported here was to analyse the effects of the program taught by undergraduate teacher education students (tutors) to middle school students experiencing literacy difficulties (tutees). The results showed students significantly improved their literacy skills, with qualitative data from the tutors acknowledging positive effects on students’ motivation and engagement. Introduction Many governments have highlighted the importance of reading skills for students to ensure they engage with knowledge and maximise their individual potential in the knowledge economy. The challenges many students in middle and senior grades experience when reading to learn from complex texts have been recognized by researchers and policy makers (Joseph & Schisler, 2009; McMaster, Espen & van den Broek, 2014). The most commonly identified difficulty is with comprehension (Hock, Brasseur, Deshler, Catts, Marquis, Mark et al., 2009; Scammacca, Roberts, Vaughn & Stuebing, 2015). Reading is a complicated, developmental process requiring both lower level processing using decoding, fluency and vocabulary knowledge, and higher level processing utilising inferencing, working memory and executive function processes to enable comprehension of text (Prochnow, Tunmer & Chapman, 2013; Kendeou, van den Broek, Helder, & Karlsson, 2014). It encompasses the affective domain (enjoying learning in a context where students feel they belong); a behavioural component requiring effort and persistence; and cognitive engagement (using strategic and metacognitive actions associated with knowledge acquisition; Unrau & Quirk, 2014). Many students struggle with accessing the general curriculum because of reading comprehension difficulties (Narkon & Wells, 2013), and “it [comprehension] remains the key longitudinal and developmental goal of all school reading instruction” (Luke, Dooley & Woods, 2011, p. 151). Comprehension is driven by the purpose of the reader where individuals take conscious control of their role in interpreting text. Sinatra and Pintrich (2003) describe the change that occurs as the “goal -directed and conscious initiation and regulation of cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational processes to bring about a change in knowledge” (p. 6). We suggest that this is an interactive process which involves the learner using cognitive processes that are embedded within and requiring engagement in unique sociocultural contexts. Reading difficulties are a major issue in Australia, as in other countries, with it not being uncommon for up to 30% of school students to be affected by considerable reading weakness (Galletly & Knight, 2013; Masters, 2009; National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), 2008; Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 2009). This situation amounts to an epidemic and needs to be addressed while the students are still at school as it has been reported that almost 50% of Australians up to 74 years of age do not have literacy skills considered essential in the new millenium (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008).