This article addresses the characteristics of learners in the emergent stage of literacy development and describes two instructional practices that facilitate the development of the alphabetic principle and concept of word in text.

Teaching students how to read is one of the most important tasks in elementary schools. The majority of schools use published basal programs to teach students to read. Several published reviews have indicated that past editions of basal readers did not align with appropriate instruction for beginning level readers. In this study I reviewed five of…

AN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP OF 461 CHILDREN WAS TAUGHT TO READ WITH THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET (I/T/A) BEGINNING IN KINDERGARTEN AND WAS READING TRADITIONAL ORTHOGRAPHY (T/O) MATERIALS BY THE END OF THE SECOND GRADE. THE CONTROL GROUP INCLUDED 462 CHILDREN WHO WERE TAUGHT TRADITIONAL ORTHOGRAPHY IN A PROGRAM CENTERED AROUND CONVENTIONAL BASAL READING…

A 2-YEAR STUDY OF THE ABILITY OF FIRST GRADERS TO LEARN TO READ USING THE "EARLY-TO-READ I/T/A/" SERIES WAS CONDUCTED. SIXTY-ONE FIRST GRADERS IN ROSE HILL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, MUKILTEO, WASHINGTON, WERE RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO AN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP USING THE I/T/A SERIES AND TO A CONTROL GROUP USING THE "GINN BASIC READERS." THREE…

Second-grade pupils who were taught reading in the first grade with the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) were compared with pupils who were taught reading with traditional orthography (TO). Seventy students from two schools in Moline, Illinois, were divided into a control group (using TO) and an experimental group (using i.t.a.) and were matched…

The purpose of this project was to test the effectiveness of i.t.a. in teaching reading to first grade students in the Portland Public Schools. Some of the elements of the experimental design included the following: one experimental--i.t.a.--and one control--traditional orthography (TO)--class was formed in each of ten schools; teachers and…

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO METHODS OF FIRST-GRADE BEGINNING READING INSTRUCTION WERE INVESTIGATED. APPROXIMATELY 920 FIRST-GRADE CHILDREN WERE DIVIDED INTO 2 GROUPS WHICH RECEIVED 1 OF THE 2 METHODS. TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF CERTAIN VARIABLES ON READING ACHIEVEMENT, THE CHILDREN WERE MATCHED IN PAIRS. THE RESULTS WERE GATHERED FROM ONE GROUP…

Data from four of the Cooperative First Grade Studies (1964-1965) were reanalyzed for four first grade projects, (Fry, Hayes, Mazurkiewicz, and Tanyzer). These projects were selected because they compared the Initial Teaching Alphabet approach with traditional orthography-basal reader approaches. The focal point of this reanalysis was to study the…

This study compared the relative effectiveness of the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i. t. a.) program for teaching beginning reading with a matched program using traditional orthography (T. O.). Three waves of first grade students in ten predominately white elementary schools were randomly assigned to i. t. a. and T. O. classrooms. Summary evaluation…

The relationships between prereading measures of auditory discrimination, letter knowledge, and intelligence and reading ability were investigated for pupils who completed grades 1 and 2 in four different types of instructional programs--conventional basal reading programs, i/t/a programs, language-experience approaches, and code-emphasis…

A study was conducted to determine the influence of a holistic versus a phonic approach in beginning reading on children's comprehension scores at the end of grade two. Two groups, each of approximately 350 students, were studied. Group one began reading instruction in first grade using the "Early-to-Read i.t.a. Program" (initial teaching…

This publication contains papers contributed to the fifth Perspectives of Reading conference of the International Reading Association which focused on the teaching of beginning reading. The following approaches are described and evaluated: (1) individualized reading, (2) basal reading, (3) linguistic approach, (4) phonics approach, (5) new…

An investigation is being made of the effects of the interaction between differing socioeconomic backgrounds and two beginning reading programs on the reading achievement of pupils at three ability levels. This report gives the results of data that have been collected for grades 1 and 2 only. Participating were 754 pupils in a small city school…

Based on its use with first graders in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for an eleven year period, the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) appears to have a number of advantages for reading instruction. These years of research have indicated that the advantages of i.t.a. are that it permits the child to: advance more rapidly in reading and writing…