A study involving 25 students (grades 3-5) with and without attentional deficits assessed generality to a standardized reading test when noninformational color was added to one of two alternate forms. Students with attentional deficits read as accurately as their classmates with color added and read worse in the black-white condition. (Contains…

A study investigated predictors of individual differences in responsiveness to word reading instruction in 55 typical first-graders and 41 identified as at-risk. A combination of rapid naming speed, letter sound knowledge, and phonemic awareness skill predicted word and nonword reading growth in the at-risk group. Growth modeling increased reading…

This article describes the first year of a 3-year professional development program designed to train two rural elementary schools to implement a model for preventing reading failure. The model provides a continuum of instruction from the general reading curriculum to intensive reading instruction for students with diverse learning needs.…

A study that examined perceptions and knowledge of 252 preservice educators and 286 inservice educators about early reading instruction found inservice educators had more positive attitudes about explicit code instruction and preservice educators were more positive about implicit code instruction. However, both groups demonstrated limited…

Studies investigating the impact of parent involvement programs on children's reading ability and children's self concept usually fail to use rigorous research methods. This study utilizes a pre-test/post-test experimental design to investigate the effects of a 12 week parent and child reading intervention on the reading ability and self…

Intended for grades K-8, this book will help teachers and students launch their own author study programs, making powerful connections with authors while nurturing a community of readers. It argues that, with author study, all students form mentor relationships with authors; gain access to the world of authors and books; develop a wide range of…

A study investigated how Hispanic bilingual students' knowledge of Spanish vocabulary and awareness of Spanish-English cognates influence comprehension of English expository text. The subjects, 74 upper elementary school students literate in both Spanish and English, were tested for vocabulary knowledge in both languages. After reading four…

A year-long study determined the long-term effects of a comprehensive learning approach to elementary reading and writing instruction on students' achievement, attitudes, and metacognitive awareness. Subjects, 529 students in 29 second- through sixth-grade classes in a suburban Maryland school district, participated in the Cooperative Integrated…

A study examined the effects of a year-long inservice program to help experienced teachers in one elementary school appreciate and use recent research in reading comprehension. All teachers at an urban K-6 elementary school in a midwestern city attended the weekly inservice sessions which focused on the importance and role of background knowledge…

Readers need to be encouraged to combine prior knowledge with information gained from the text and then try to predict what will happen later in the text. The overhead projector is a valuable tool for enhancing instruction involving prediction. The process of gradually revealing text to a group of students, eliciting their predictions, evaluating…

Based on the premise that literacy research and instruction is becoming more focused on connections between reading and writing, this FAST Bib contains selected references from 1985 to 1989. The 31-item annotated bibliography is organized into four sections: (1) overview; (2) research; (3) integrating language arts; and (4) classroom applications.…

This report discusses how reading instruction should be modified to facilitate the development of comprehension strategies in all children (including those labeled as "at-risk" or "disadvantaged"). Current theoretical views of reading comprehension do not support a discrete skills perspective, but classroom research has…

A study examined the use of time reserved for formal reading instruction in elementary schools. Subjects were 36 elementary classroom teachers--12 each from grades 1, 3, and 5--in 8 suburban schools. Specific reading instruction behaviors for each teacher were observed during two complete periods of the regularly scheduled reading classes. Teacher…

Numerous comprehension strategies can be used successfully with both children's literature and a basal reading series to help children focus on written text during reading. One of the most important techniques is developing background knowledge prior to reading--the overall purpose of which is to help readers relate their existing schemata to the…

The primary focuse of the research project reported in this paper over a five-year period has been on investigating the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching strategies, with particular emphasis on the two semantic-based instructional strategies of semantic mapping and semantic feature analysis. A series of five varied studies evaluated these…