First steps toward a full and flexible literacy: Case studies of the four resources model

Abstract This article provides case studies of three middle school students ‐ two female and one male ‐ who participated in an individual summer tutoring program designed to improve students’ reading comprehension and to encourage students to think critically about texts. With the researcher, students read and discussed Internet texts and wrote responses. An Informal Reading Inventory (Burns & Roe, 1999) was administered both prior to and at the conclusion of the program for measurement of improvement in reading comprehension. Using the four resources model (Freebody & Luke, 1990), this study illustrates possibilities for instruction in both comprehension and critical literacy.