A successful reading program is a broad-based personalized program that recognizes that reading is a mixture of various skills: phonemic awareness, grapho-phonemic correspondence, word analysis and synthesis, sight-word vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, semantic knowledge, and literary knowledge. Changes in instructional techniques are made based…

This is the first research handbook to address all dimensions of diversity that have an impact on literacy achievement. Leading experts examine how teaching and learning intersect with cultural and language differences and socioeconomic disparities in today's increasingly diverse schools and communities. The volume weaves compelling research…

This collection of articles from The Reading Teacher offers indispensable insight on issues, problems, and innovative solutions in literacy education. A wide spectrum of authors--ranging from successful classroom teachers to noted researchers and teacher educators--weigh in on language theories, relevant research, effective instructional…

Many Canadians are concerned about the quality of reading instruction in Canadian schools. Recent newspaper articles, research reviews, and newsletter articles reflect the nature of these concerns. The official instructional policy in a number of provinces as well as in a number of local school districts is based on a whole-language philosophy.…

The major theory examined in this paper is that the increasing problem of illiteracy in the United States may be due to a faulty method of teaching reading. The causes of the illiteracy problem and possible solutions are explored using evidence from reading research and classroom results. The following topics concerning the teaching of reading are…

Intended for student use at home as a supplement to schoolwork or at school as a phonics text, this workbook presents initial consonant sounds in order of difficulty. The lesson for each sound is four pages in length. The first page consists of an illustration showing familiar objects; students are asked to circle the objects whose names begin…

Intended for student use at home as a supplement to schoolwork or at school as a phonics text, this workbook is a follow-up to "Initial Consonants." The first part of the workbook provides practice for consonants at the end of words. Most letters are given a four-page lesson. On the first page, students are asked to look at pictures, name them,…

Intended for student use at home as a supplement to schoolwork or at school as a phonics text, this workbook presents the most common and regular sounds of vowels. The short vowels are presented first. The lesson for each vowel consists of six pages of exercises. On the first page, the vowel sound is introduced by a cartoon. On the second and…

Intended for student use at home as a supplement to schoolwork or at school as a phonics text, this workbook presents the irregular vowel sounds, including the vowel diphthongs, the r-controlled vowels, and other irregular vowel combinations. Each vowel or combination is presented in a lesson of two to six pages, depending on its perceived…

A study examined the role of phonics instruction in beginning reading and culminated in a report which has been published as a book entitled "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print." The study centered around the debate over whether phonics instruction promotes or impedes development of the attitudes and abilities required…

This paper surveys methods for teaching reading and writing in kindergarten. The paper stresses the importance of accepting a child's own efforts, including invented spelling, and providing an atmosphere that encourages experimentation. Chapter 1 introduces the topic; chapter 2 provides a historical overview. The current state of the art is…

The student reader-workbook, third part of the "Chaa'" series, presents activities for the student to do orally and in writing. Pages are divided into four frames with the intention of completing each frame before continuing to the next frame in sequence. To allow children an opportunity to decode words at an early age, the code emphasis (phonics)…

An attempt to build on oral language programs--such as the language experience approach--by adding a written language component and a phonics component, to make transition to reading more meaningful and reading skill development more systematic, was undertaken in the study described here. The program, called DIREKT, was conducted by two…

This publication deals with practical areas of early reading in instruction that may be of immediate use to practitioners. The first chapter offers a perspective on current theories of reading instruction, and subsequent chapters deal with topics that are often considered controversial among those who teach reading. Discussed are the learning…

In discussing word recognition, Kenneth Goodman argues that preoccupation with words, leters, and sounds cuts off children from the meaning-seeking function of reading; that oral and written language are parallel modes of obtaining meaning from language; and that reading is a selective rather than a precise process of word perception. A review of…