Questions pertaining to beginning reading, success, and failure are addressed. The issues of concern are: (1) When reading begins? (2) What preschool activities seem to help certain children succeed as readers? (3) What characteristics and conditions are associated with reading failure in first grade? (4) What early experiences might help children…

Describes the four aspects of the Reading Recovery program: (1) the teaching of children; (2) the training of teachers; (3) the training of teacher leaders; and (4) implementing the program in an education system and coordinating the long-term prevention strategy. Notes that a critical factor in the program is the training of teachers. (RS)

Students with special needs share the same basic needs for literacy instruction. General-education teachers should maintain primary responsibility for literacy education for all students, while special educators and reading specialists provide support. This paper examines obstacles to quality literacy instruction, offering a school-based case…

A father describes how the public school system made his daughter, Charlie, into a disabled reader. Charlie had experienced early reading success both at home and in kindergarten, and enjoyed reading. Placed in the low reading group in first grade, Charlie resisted the dull, structured exercises of remedial reading instruction which she received…

Accountability based on reading scores will only demoralize teachers who are trying hard in disadvantaged schools. A better response to reading failure would include improved teacher training and placement, ability grouping, reduced class size, adequate specialist support, and kindergarten reading. PS 209 in Queens utilizes several of these…

In this interview, a tutor in a correctional reading program, himself a former drug addict and jail prisoner, describes his childhood failures in reading, the public shool's failure to help him and other Spanish-speaking students, his eventual reading success in the jail reading program, and factors that account for the program's success. (GT)

Presents a father's perspective on the outcome of tracking in school. Describes how a child with an early love of literacy ended up as a disabled reader. Points out how grouping and tracking systematically destroyed the child's ability and interest in reading. (SR)

Argues that federal policy decisions have shaped a particular configuration of services for low achieving readers at the school level because prevailing definitions conceptualize reading failure as a disability rather than as a disadvantage. Notes that reading researchers must be aware of this if low achieving children are to benefit from advances…

A discussion of adult learners and a description of instructional reading strategies--based on thinking--for adult learners are presented in this paper. A definition of adulthood and the nontraditional learner in the paper highlights adults' cognitive skills, interests, and literacy levels, while the metacognitive awareness of disabled and good…

Intended to provide a basis for a sociolinguistic theory of reading by placing reading within a discussion of the formal and functional characteristics of language use in social settings, this book explores the state of the art of reading and literacy, the relations between spoken and written language, and explanations of reading failure. Chapters…

Various federal and state laws, regulations, and policies influence whether a low-achieving reader is categorized as "disadvantaged" or "disabled," and consequently what instructional interventions are provided. Low-achieving readers are being referred to special education at high rates while the number of eligible students…

An analysis of the problems of an illiterate woman who learned to read as an adult, based on oral history techniques supplemented by information from teachers, family, and friends, is presented in this paper. An account of the woman's life is first presented to show her complete inability to read or write through ten years of schooling, the…

Notes that poor readers often equate reading difficulty with failure and exhibit stress reactions, and suggests that teachers take these feelings into account to help with remediation. (JC)

One way of countering illiteracy is to teach children to read before they enter elementary school, e.g., in nursery school or at home. The "right age" for learning to read is discussed; positive results of a project in France that taught nursery school children to read and write are examined. (RM)

Children are faced with an increased potential for academic failure due to less stable family lives and career-oriented parents. Cross-cultural reading instruction practices and programs can provide insights that could prevent such failure for children at-risk. One such program is the reading maintenance program used in Denmark, wherein groups of…