Examines (from the perspective of developmental dialectics) the on-going debate between traditional instruction and whole-language advocates in reading. Provides an overview of the differences between the two camps. Outlines the reasons why whole-language approaches have increasingly been incorporated into classrooms. Speculates on how the debate…

Describes a discussion web as a graphic aid for teaching students how to think about both sides of an issue before drawing a conclusion in response to what they have read. Describes the five-step procedure and provides grade-level and content-area examples and examples of webs in action across the curriculum. (MG)

A study involving 16 elementary students with deafness examined whether the use of signed English pictures in association with printed text enhances students' reading comprehension. Results found that comprehension was significantly enhanced by the use of signed English reading books, with poorer readers deriving greater benefits than better…

Describes class activities that combine reading-prediction strategies with various graphs that quantify and make visual representations of those predictions, strengthening both reading and mathematical knowledge. Describes learning about whole numbers (picto/bar graphs), multiples (bar graphs), fractions (pie graphs), and percents (pie graphs).…

As a young teacher, the author discovered that children's literature sparks students' imagination and inspires meaningful teaching. The daily exercise of reading prepares children for all the unstandardized tests that life will administer. Reality is not a place, but a power to "realize" or bring into being. (MLH)

Uses a brief instructional history and quotes actual classroom dialog to focus on a teacher's instructional decisions and practices that helped a 10-year-old boy, reading below a preprimer reading level, move toward reading independence. (SR)

This article emphasizes the need for a paradigm shift and an underlying change in attitude toward the teaching of reading. Educators are urged to leave behind the traditional linear approach to teaching and instead respond to divergent modes and styles of learning among students. The concept development approach is described. (CR)

Describes the writer's experiences rethinking his reading instruction in his special education resource room. Demonstrates how miscue analysis helped him see his students' strengths. (SR)

Reflects on how miscue analysis empowers teachers and empowers students. Discusses how it changes teachers' understanding of readers who are experiencing difficulty. Discusses Retrospective Miscue Analysis, which involves students in analyzing their own miscues. Offers teachers advice for getting started in miscue analysis, and appends a 38-item…

Reports the result of an intervention designed to increased oral reading fluency and listening previewing. Three reading-impaired African American male elementary students exposed to the program evidenced substantial increases on correct words per minute and percent comprehension accuracy, and substantial decreases in mean number of errors. (JPS)

Presents a sample lesson to support teachers as they guide students toward becoming more strategic, independent readers. The lesson involves using context clues to understand tough words and scaffolding reading with other word-building strategies (preteaching vocabulary and strengthening students' word knowledge) when there are no context clues.…

Experiment compares students receiving an instructional intervention designed to increase intrinsic motivation with students receiving traditional instruction. Concept-oriented reading instruction (CORI) integrated reading and language arts with science inquiry, emphasizing learning goals, real-world interaction, competence support, and…

Describes the idea of creating a glove for each of the comprehension strategies for use with different text structures. Notes that the gloves serve as a multisensory approach by providing visual clues through icons on each finger and the palm. Discusses three different gloves: the prereading glove, the narrative text structure glove, and the…

A study investigated the transfer effect of three different word recognition strategies. Subjects were 90 first- through fourth-grade children randomly drawn from an elementary school population to serve in the experimental group and a like number assigned to a non-instructed control group. Strategies taught to subjects were a graphophonic…

Using easy-to-understand models from everyday practice and supporting the classroom observations with research, this book describes how a teacher replaced traditional phonics instruction with strategies incorporating "onset" and "rime" that improved students' reading comprehension. The book notes that as students' level of comfort with phonics…