Describes techniques used in a multi-age class at Coupeville Elementary School, Washington, to boost reading comprehension and inspire students' love of books: access to an abundance of books, challenges to students, skills reinforcement, combined phonics and whole-language instruction, running-record assessment, paired reading, independent…

Two studies involving 29 third-grade teachers found that overall, teachers used whole class instruction for reading and the same materials for all students, including students with learning disabilities. Students with learning disabilities made little academic progress and their attitudes about reading did not improve over time. (Contains…

Explains how teachers at Ramirez Elementary School in Lubbock (Texas) use thematic teaching to make connections across subject areas and to provide students with rich literacy instruction. Describes how these teachers implement social studies content to enhance their students' reading, writing, and thinking skills. Illustrates the power of…

This article reviews research on effective classroom reading instruction that finds dramatic reduction in reading failure occurs when explicit instruction is provided in phonemic awareness and decoding skills, word recognition and text processing, construction of meaning, vocabulary, spelling, and writing. The need for small-group instruction for…

It is important for parents to teach their children to associate learning with sweetness, enjoyment, and pleasure. Suggestions to help parents make reading to their children a special time are: (1) make reading a "snuggle time"; (2) visit the library once a week; (3) develop a regular reading time with children; (4) select appropriate…

Reading comprehension is an important skill that every student needs in order to be successful. It is directly influenced by how readers construct a representation of the information that they are taking in. Overwhelmingly, the processing strategies found in research can appropriately fit into the Into, Through, Beyond strategies used in the…

Using an emergent literacy perspective, a qualitative case study examined a child who struggled to become a reader. The study was based on data gathered during a 33-month tutoring intervention extending from the end of repeated first grade to mid-fourth grade. Interviews and documents were used to reconstruct the child's literacy history prior to…

This book presents practical ideas, procedures, and activities which can help parents improve children's reading. The book contains the following chapters: (1) "Reading and Your Child"; (2) "Living with and Helping Your Child"; (3) "Getting Ready to Teach Your Child"; (4) "The Teaching Session"; (5)…

Designed to tap the rich collection of instructional techniques in the ERIC database, this compilation of lesson plans offers practical suggestions for teaching remedial reading at the elementary level. The 42 lesson plans in this book are divided into four sections: (1) creative activities; (2) games; (3) reading comprehension; and (4) reading…

Intended for individuals involved in teaching children to read--parents, teachers, librarians, and reading specialists--this handbook provides activities and resources to supplement programs designed to encourage children's enjoyment of books. The reading activities presented in this handbook have been developed around a sports theme. The…

Sixteen experienced teachers of reading, from a large, northeastern, American university, were asked how, in their elementary classrooms, they would approach the story of Cinderella. This was done in an attempt to find out what conception teachers might have about the way texts could themselves teach children to negotiate meaning, how teachers saw…

To determine whether repeated reading of stories in a developmental reading program would build fluency in slow readers, a study examined five students in the "low" reading group of a self-contained third grade classroom. During a 10-week period, students read a series of 10 stories from the basal reader "Widening Circles."…

Recent research suggests that an understanding of a simple children's story can demand sophisticated knowledge of concepts, social life, and literary forms. A well-written story for beginning readers will relate goal-directed event sequences in a coherent and relatively complete form, but understanding the story involves processes extending beyond…

A study investigated whether a student's repertoire of comprehension-fostering tactics could be reliably identified, with the expectation that this sort of diagnostic profile might serve as a basis for an individualized remedial program. Subjects, 81 second, third, fourth, and fifth grade students enrolled in remedial reading programs in six…

A study investigated the use of the semantic webbing technique to improve reading comprehension. The model of a web consists of the core question, the web strands, the supports of the strand, and the strand ties. Subjects, 25 third graders and 26 fourth graders, were assigned to reading ability groups based on past performance, informal testing…