This study examined the effect of explicit and engaging supplemental early literacy instruction on at-risk kindergarten children's literacy development. Sixty-three kindergarten-aged children who had been ranked in the lowest 20th percentile on basic literacy skills participated in this study (38 treatment). Results reveal that children who…

This study compared normally achieving fourth-grade ''Phoenician'' readers, who identify nonwords significantly more accurately than they do exception words, with ''Chinese'' readers, who show the reverse pattern. Phoenician readers scored lower than Chinese readers on word identification, exception word reading, orthographic choice, spelling,…

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of two theoretically different reading programs on the reading outcomes of first-grade students (N = 107). Two elementary schools were chosen for participation based on the first-grade reading program currently being implemented in the schools. One school used the "Horizons Fast Track…

The Research in Practice Series has been developed to provide practical, easy to read, up-to-date information and support to a growing national readership of early childhood workers. Letters and sounds are the foundation blocks for communication -- the pathway to success in school and life. Topfer explains how to use games and activities involving…

"Voyager Passport"[TM] is a supplemental reading intervention system for students in grades K-5. "Voyager Passport Reading Journeys"[TM] is a reading intervention program designed for adolescents who struggle with reading. The "Voyager Universal Literacy System"[R] is a K-3 reading program that includes a core reading…

At the end of first grade, TM did not know the alphabet and could read no words. He could not tap syllables in words, had difficulty producing rhyming words and retrieving the phonological representations of words, and he could not discriminate many phoneme contrasts. He learned letter-sound correspondences first for single-consonant onsets and…

This study investigated the concurrent contributions of phonology, orthography, and morphology to biliteracy acquisition in 78 Grade 1 Chinese-English bilingual children. Conceptually comparable measures in English and Chinese tapping phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness were administered. Word reading skill in English and…

Several decades of research have established the critical role of phonemic awareness in the development of beginning reading. In particular, phonemic awareness makes early phonics instruction useful for children and facilitates their ability to blend letter sounds while decoding words, to learn sight words reliably, and to spell phonetically. A…

Outcomes of two training programs aimed at improving reading speed for 39 German-speaking poor readers in grades 2 and 4 were evaluated. During a 6-week training period, a specific target for children in a "computer group" was to improve reading of word-initial consonant clusters by practice in associating an orthographic unit with a corresponding…

Breznitz (2006) demonstrated that Hebrew-speaking adults with reading disabilities benefited from a training in which reading rate was experimentally manipulated. In the present study, the authors examine whether silent reading training enhances the sentence reading rate and comprehension of children with reading disabilities and whether results…

Grounded in research and practical expertise, this volume helps K-6 teachers skillfully support all of their English language learners (ELLs)--from a single student to an entire classroom. Ideas for teaching ELLs across different grade and proficiency levels include ways to link instruction to students' lived experiences, use a variety of…

"Early Intervention in Reading"[R] ("EIR"[R]) is a program designed to provide extra instruction to groups of students at risk of failing to read. This report is an evaluation of "EIR"[R] based on studies of its effectiveness. One study of "Early Intervention in Reading"[R] met the What Works Clearinghouse…

This book presents a research-supported framework for early literacy instruction that aligns with multi-tiered response-to-intervention (RTI) models. The book focuses on giving teachers a better understanding of literacy development and how to effectively support children as they begin to read and write. The authors' interactive strategies…

The research addresses the role of lexical analogies in early reading by examining variation in children's self-reported strategy choices in the context of a traditional clue-word reading task. Sixty 5- to 6-year-old beginning readers were given a nonword version of a traditional clue-word reading analogy task, and changes in strategies were…

Rhythm production in 53 children in grade 1 was investigated as a predictor of reading ability in the same children in grades 1-5. This paper reports the results of correlations and hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for shared variance between phonological awareness and naming speed. Rhythm was correlated significantly with both…