This article focuses on two main issues. On the one hand, it deals with early prevention of literacy difficulties. On the other hand, it deals with the same issue once pupils already present serious difficulties in reading and writing. Consequently, this paper has two main aims. Firstly, it aims to show teachers that, in order to carry out…

Highlights the teacher's critical role in spelling instruction and provides examples of how to support spelling development in classrooms. Argues that educators need to look closely at children's emerging capacities as writers, focusing especially on the issue of invented spelling, and its use and misuse in classroom practices. (SG)

A carefully coordinated literacy assessment and instruction framework implemented school-wide can support school teams in making sense of various types of data for instructional planning. Instruction that is data based and goal driven sets the stage for continuous reading and writing improvement. (Contains 2 figures.)

Suggests that the combination of reading, writing, and art has the potential to reach those students who may not be reached by other vehicles. Describes the use of the directed reading, writing, and art activity, which has been used with all students from the gifted to those in Chapter 1 Reading and Resource classrooms. (RS)

Suggests that autobiography is a fertile context for students to develop a facility for reading and writing and for defining and constructing themselves within an academic setting. Discusses using autobiography in an introduction to academic discourse course for developmental college students. (RS)

Describes how an English teacher of disenchanted high school kids made students apprentice writers, and used genre study to bring reading and writing together in the classroom. Shows how students learned to do closer readings, looked at the writer's craft, did occasional sentence-by-sentence analysis, and wrote their own pieces in these genres.…

Describes a method of using writing to improve high school students' reading skills. (AEA)

Describes how art became a central part of a South Texas teacher's language arts curriculum and how such an approach improved children's reading and writing test scores despite (actually because of) the fact that she refused to drill children for the test. (RS)

Argues that captioned video is an innovative and promising approach for improving students' reading comprehension, vocabulary, and motivation. Describes its use in a fourth-grade classroom, and makes suggestions for getting started. (SR)

The learning assistance center at a California university offers a carefully designed learning program for faculty and staff in the areas of reading, writing, and time management. The goal of the reading efficiency course is to improve reading speed without loss in comprehension. Tests are given throughout the course to monitor progress, and…

Describing the SouthEastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE) program and its mission to promote and support the continual improvement of educational opportunities for all learners in the Southeast, this paper focuses on the importance of improving student literacy outcomes in schools due to the demands of living in a technological,…

Contains a vignette of a second grade classroom in which a whole language approach is used to teach reading and writing. Defines and describes whole language theory, practice, and goals. Offers guidelines to facilitate the process of changing from the basal to the holistic approach. (PRA)

Describes Literacy and Technology Hands On, a program of literacy instruction for young people with Down syndrome who have recently left school, which uses a combination of technology and more traditional methods to continue these students' literacy instruction into young adulthood. Discusses the program's rationale, aims, features, theoretical…

The Language Experience Approach (LEA) creates reading materials and writing opportunities through integrated use of the learner's language and experience. Individualized LEA involving a "dictation" approach (child dictates experience; teacher records and reads back experience) is beneficial for hearing-impaired students in terms of increased…

Describes SPAWN, a technique for helping teachers make writing assignments in which students must first read, then integrate information from reading with their background experiences, to produce a piece of writing. (FL)