Units of study that contain fictional and informational texts can improve students' comprehension by strengthening background knowledge, vocabulary, and motivation. Such units improve students' background knowledge when informational texts activate or build prior knowledge for fictional texts on the same topic, vocabulary when they provide…

Lists 38 ways to more effective teaching of word attack skills. (MKM)

Sets forth educational inferences drawn from a classroom incident involving a first-grade child and her first story writing experience. (FL)

Reports on a four-year study of the process of journal writing in an elementary school. Assesses student behavior as well as actual writing. (FL)

Proposes a seven-stage model of direct instruction as it might be applied to a reading skills lesson on predicting outcomes. Discusses each stage of the model: exploration, explication, translation, modeling, guided practice, application, and closure. (FL)

Stresses the importance of parental involvement in children's education. Describes a successful parent-student study-skills workshop, and discusses several common barriers to parents' participation in workshops along with suggested solutions. (ARH)

Argues that traditional sight word lists do not include many of the words young learners see on the computer screen. Presents a supplementary list that incorporates such words for computer-assisted instruction in the elementary school. (FL)

Describes a research project for teachers on reading and writing in which teachers meet regularly in small groups to share their creative writing. (EL)

Offers a set of lesson plans that use simple semantic word maps to help students improve their vocabulary knowledge and comprehension in all subject areas. (FL)

Outlines a program that helped parents to become active partners in their children's reading development. (FL)

Reports on a study of the curriculum in six paired elementary schools in Los Angeles. Concludes that, if a school has low scores on inferential, interpretive reading, the cure is probably not to give students more of the basics but to develop their vocabularies and general knowledge by providing broad instruction in the content areas. (FL)

Argues that by encouraging children in their early writing efforts, adults can help them develop into confident and comfortable writers. (FL)

Suggests offering literature to children that is meaningful in terms of the child's growth and furture, and the future of people, rather than avoiding all books showing people and the world in less than idyllic contexts. (TO)