Contains contributions from five educators concerning the following topics: (1) the "Super Sounder" system of presenting phonics instruction to beginning readers, (2) teaching vocabulary in a multigrade classroom, (3) language experience and basal readers, (4) pacing as a key to successful drill work, and (5) creative ways to encourage reading.…

Contains contributions from three educators concerning the following: (1) child-made books in beginning reading, (2) ideas for celebrating a "reading week" as part of American Education Week, and (3) using doll families to teach phonics to beginning readers. (FL)

Features critiques from 10 literacy educators on the book "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print" and a response from the author, Marilyn Jager Adams. (MG)

An instrument for assessing young students' understanding of the English orthographic system is presented. The Tile Test measures understanding of phoneme awareness, letter-sound correspondences, decoding and spelling of words, sight-word reading, and the application of decoding and spelling in sentences. Metalinguistic questions embedded within…

Suggests methods for teaching gifted children to read that will not bore them or make them repeat skills they have already mastered. (MKM)

Research indicates that the Wallach and Wallach tutorial reading program for low-readiness first graders which emphasizes phoneme identification skills is effective. (MKM)

Claims that even though teaching phonics is an effective method of reading instruction, the skills taught by phonics have little to do with the process of reading acquisition. Offers two methods of resolving the paradoxes generated by this situation. (NH)

Reports that after more than 50 years of argument as to whether children should be taught the names of letters as part of learning to read, American researchers have begun to suggest that letter name instruction and phonics instruction interact for better learning. (FL)

Suggestions from five contributors deal with the following topics: (1) helping the child who stutters to read fluently, (2) the vowel-consonant-vowel controversy, (3) motivating the reluctant reader, (4) building self-concept through a story wall, and (5) dictionary study. (FL)

Contains contributions dealing with the following: (1) teaching short vowels, diagraphs, and consonant blends; (2) affective planning in reading instruction; (3) phonics; (4) integrating reading and science instruction; (5) vocabulary; (6) story structure in children's book choices; (7) preventing summer reading loss; and (8) writing assignments…

Investigates eight first-grade whole language classrooms in terms of what phonics skills and concepts were taught, where phonics instruction occurred, and how it was conducted. Shows gains in ability to decode and encode words for all students. Finds that teachers responded to individual needs of learners, and that skills were taught within the…

Addresses two broad issues: the current understanding of spelling development and how this understanding fits within a broader model of literacy development; and the implications of the developmental model for spelling instruction and word study. Suggests that it is essential that instruction balance authentic reading and writing with purposeful…