Averil Coxhead is widely known for developing the Academic Word List, a list of 570 word families associated with great frequency in academic texts. This list has been particularly useful to teachers of English as a Second Language as well as independent learners in tertiary education. She has also developed a Science-based word list (Coxhead and…

This article discusses how reading for their own purposes affected struggling teens. It shares the authors' story, which demonstrates the importance and power of focusing on students' purposes, as highlighted in Standard 12, a standard not often addressed or assessed, but one that matters to students and teachers alike. The authors describe how a…

Unfortunately for students, school reading has become an institution-- a powerful, organized machine that dooms the whole educational enterprise to mediocrity. This article presents 31 grievances against the present system and advocates replacing the vacuous, contrived subject called reading with the teaching of genuine subjects. (MLH)

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)

Jeanne S. Chall, Roger Farr, John C. Manning, Robert B. Ruddell, Russell G. Stauffer, Dorothy S. Strickland, and Richard L. Venezky comment on significant developments in reading during the 1970s, hopes for the 1980s, and important references dealing with teaching children to read. (DD)

Argues for an integrated response to the interrelated problems of substance abuse and literacy. Recommends assessment to identify substance abuse and literacy problems, integrated instructional interventions, and discourse among classroom teachers and mental health professionals. (SR)

Imagery has a significant role in cognitive development. Reading research has established the fact that good readers image spontaneously and that there is a high interrelationship between overall preference for a story, the amount of text-related imagery in the story, comprehension, and recall. Imagery researchers agree that everyone is capable of…

With a simplified alphabet and interactive computer programing, John Henry Martin has developed a system by which children can learn to read and write far better than usual. In this interview, he explains his approach. (Author/MLF)

Second-graders and a new teacher came up with an approach that showed him how much fun reading can be. The students voted on reading privileges; peer pressure maintained discipline; students shared books that their parents had read to them and invited "guest readers" to read with their class. (MLF)

Identifies analogous patterns in the histories of education and literacy education, noting wide swings of fadism over time, tracing phonics instruction throughout history, inspecting a model of educational innovation as related to literacy, and suggesting implications of this model for the future (noting lessons to be distilled from awareness of…

The emotional and paraconscious characteristics of an adult who is faced with the need to learn to read make the use of the suggestopedic instructional method, which operates below the level of consciousness, attractive. Among learner characteristics to which suggestopedia can be directly applied are integrative and instrumental motivation, and…

Discusses ways in which technology in the classroom is bound to affect both what and how language arts is taught, as well as the very culture of schooling. Places technological innovations within a historical context and provides a hopeful picture for the future. (RS)

Examines studies of literacy instruction in American schools during the past 10 years both in terms of the notions that guide current practice and in terms of recent conceptions of literacy. Concludes that current literacy instruction limits students. Proposes an alternative view of instruction grounded in the concept of instructional scaffolding.…

Considering the debate in reading instruction between whole language and phonics, this paper suggests personalizing the teaching of reading using both methods of reading instruction. It gives two examples of how personalized units of reading instruction were used. The paper suggests giving pupils ample opportunities to choose and read a library…

Discusses the neglect of investigations of the social relationships through which reading is developed in schools, analyzes reading as a product of social relationships, and argues that those who propose changes in reading instruction--such as a change to holistic instruction--need to be aware of social constraints on teachers' behavior. (GT)