Fifteen students read expository texts and filled in deleted words and phrases. The five deaf high school youths reported using similar strategies as hearing elementary school youths and hearing reading-disabled high school youths, but deaf readers more often relied on rereading and background knowledge, whereas hearing readers more often used…

This article reviews Bakker's developmental neuropsychological model (the Balance Model) of reading development (EC 602 750), notes the need for validating research before employing these procedures in clinical practice, and raises some conceptual problems such as evidence that learning disability subtypes evolve over time. (Author/DB)

Fourteen students (ages 7-9) with reading difficulties were taught to create word-picture links for those words they find particularly difficult to recognize quickly. Students consistently learned more words when using the word association method. (DB)

Examines the literature linking phoneme awareness and reading acquisition, and looks at the nature of this relationship in terms of learner and task. Summarizes findings from correlational and phoneme awareness training studies and discusses the relationship of phoneme awareness to reading. Presents explanations for low phoneme awareness skills in…

Shares the results of two studies on the Possible Sentences strategy which indicate that the strategy can be as effective, if not more so, than semantic mapping in teaching vocabulary and fostering recall information. (MG)

Describes a comprehension strategies instruction program called Students Achieving Independent Learning (SAIL). Relates the program to reader response and transactional theories of reading. Shows how the program works in one school system. Compares SAIL with basal series instruction programs. (HB)

Defines phonological awareness and discusses historical and contemporary research findings regarding its relation to early reading. Common misconceptions are addressed, and research-based guidelines for teaching phonological awareness and phonemic awareness to all children are described. (Author/CR)

Focuses on the effect of word-recognition instruction on later reading success for all students, particularly students experiencing difficulties with early reading. Instructional principles are offered for teaching essential elements of word recognition: letter-sound correspondence, regular word reading, story reading, irregular word reading, and…

Hypothesizes that developing an understanding of the connections between oral and written language rather than phonemic awareness per se, is essential to learning to read. At the macrolevel this involves an understanding that written words represent words in oral language, and at the microlevel that letters in written words stand for phonemes in…

Describes procedures for teaching Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR), in which students of mixed reading and achievement levels work in small, cooperative groups to assist one another in applying reading strategies to facilitate their comprehension of content-area text. Discusses whole-class instruction of CSR strategies, implementing CSR in…

A study compared the effectiveness of two reading interventions with 45 second-graders. Interventions differed in the unit of word analysis (phoneme versus onset-rime), the approach to intervention (contextualized versus decontextualized), and the primary domain of reading instruction (oral versus written language). Children in both reading…

This article outlines the Schoolwide Reading Improvement Model (SRIM), a model characterized by the strategic integration of research-based practices in assessment, instructional design, and beginning reading instruction. A description of each major stage of the SRIM is provided, along with an example of its application in an Oregon school…

This article describes the quest of an elementary special educator to create an effective reading program that would motivate students, as well as one that would address the students' Individualized Education Programs. Allowing the students to help select books and integrating writing activities had a positive effect on the students. (Contains…

Explores how word walls and the activities related to them function as conversational scaffolds and as visual scaffolds that help students take control of literacy skills and strategies. Describes word walls. Discusses purposes they serve, how to use them with beginning, developing, and struggling readers and writers. (SR)

A survey involving 14 students with learning disabilities in Northern Ireland primary schools found that WordImage, an approach that uses word-cards with sentences on one side and color picture-cards on the reverse, was effective in teaching word recognition. Some children were found to be more receptive to pictorial cueing than others. (Contains…