Drawing on a four-year study of teacher explanation of skills and strategies during elementary reading instruction, this paper identifies and describes properties which distinguish the explanations of more effective teachers from those of less effective teachers. Excerpts of lesson transcripts are used to illustrate these properties. (Author/MT)

Defines direct instruction, reviews research analyzing its characteristics and offers reflections on direct instruction of reading comprehension. (FL)

Presents examples of current instructional conceptions, illustrates one way to broaden thinking about teaching, and argues that a lack of such thinking poses its own methodological problems for reading instructional research. (AEA)

Describes and evaluates four measures designed to study students' awareness and use of reading skills as strategies. Finds that consistent results were obtained with all measures and that a correlational study indicates strong relationships among the measures. (RS)

Explains how reading skills prescribed in basal readers can be recast and taught as reading strategies. (FL)

Concludes that classroom teachers can articulate theories of reading outside the school, but that their actual instructional practice is governed by a complex set of contextual factors. (FL)

Drawing on specific examples in elementary school classrooms and flying instruction analogies, this article shows how teachers can creatively combine tenets of both holistic and direct approaches to reading instruction. Students are more likely to use reading and writing effectively when teachers themselves are empowered to select intelligently…

Focusing on the way teachers conceptualize reading and on whether these conceptions influence instructional practice, a study was undertaken utilizing a propositional inventory and a naturalistic field study. The propositional inventory was used in two teacher surveys: the first included 602 teachers and sought to determine their conceptions of…

A performance-based reading methods course at Michigan State University arose from the differences between traditional and performance-based preservice methods courses. Differences between the two types of courses are found in their objectives, clarity of communication, grading, unit of instruction, type of learning activity, type of pacing,…

This article discusses recent findings from descriptive research on the teaching of reading. Teaching practices that appear to have a strong effect on learner comprehension are identified, and implications of findings for inservice teachers and for teacher educators are discussed. (Authors/CJ)

Observational data on six first and second grade teachers were analyzed qualitatively to determine whether any of these teachers provided "assisted learning" during reading instruction. Assisted learning was defined as the teacher's intentional efforts to structure the students' learning experiences so that they could learn more easily.…

Using Vygotsky's concept of mediated development, a study was designed to determine the effectiveness of what teachers say during instruction in reading skills. Twenty-two teachers were observed five times and their students interviewed to discover student awareness of the use of strategies in reading. Results are explored. (Author/MT)

Argues that pursuing the nonexistent "perfect method" for teaching reading to all children distracts from the real key to improving reading instruction: developing teachers who know a variety of methods and approaches and thoughtfully orchestrate them according to their students' needs. Suggests what teachers, policy makers, researchers, and…

To clarify the interaction between elementary school teachers' theoretical orientations of reading and their classroom practices, this paper reviews the literature concerning theory-to-practice research. The studies are arranged into four categories: (1) teachers' conceptions of reading, (2) teacher planning, (3) teacher decision making, and (4)…

A study focusing on teacher conceptions of reading as they influence instructional practice and pupil outcomes required the development of an instrument to use in selecting teachers possessing various beliefs about reading. Teacher beliefs about reading can be viewed both in terms of standard models (such as basal text, linear skills, natural…