A study conducted with 20 good and 20 poor first-grade readers suggested that the ability to induce grapheme-phoneme relationships was much more strongly related to reading ability than was receptive vocabulary. Good readers appeared to apply a principled solution to a word-learning task, while poor readers used an associative solution. (Author/GT)

Reports on an experiment that investigated whether third graders designated as good readers were significantly better than poor readers at hypothesis testing when decoding words. (HOD)

An action research project describes a cross-age tutoring program to help increase the reading achievement of targeted second graders. The targeted population consisted of second and fifth graders in a middle class suburban community west of a large midwestern city. The problems of poor word attack skills and reading comprehension were documented…

A step-by-step procedure for teaching and reviewing dictionary skills is presented. Activities are offered to support learning objectives related to the following topics: (1) alphabetizing; (2) finding entry words; (3) using guide words; (4) learning what a definition is and that a word may have multiple definitions; (5) using the pronunciation…

As part of a larger effort to develop a test battery for diagnosing difficulties with various word recognition subskills among mainstreamed students in grades 2 through 5, four experiments were conducted to compare the abilities of good and poor readers to read a frequency-graduated series of irregularly spelled words first in isolation and then…

A study is described in this paper that was conducted to determine the frequency and percentage of words containing Latin prefixes and roots in the "Harris Jacobson Core List" (Basic Elementary Reading Vocabularies, 1972). The results of the study indicate that the percentage of words containing Latin prefixes and roots increases…

This paper contains a report of a theoretical investigation of contextual analysis (CA) that ranked this reading strategy as the most complex of four kindred word recognition skills although many current reading programs advance its use in the beginning stages of formal reading instruction. Three propositions are offered: CA holds kinship with the…

The most significant findings and recommendations of the 1975 Oregon Statewide Reading Assessment are highlighted in this summary intended for a nontechnical audience. A criterion-referenced test was developed to test the reading achievement of fourth graders in the areas of word attack skills, comprehension skills, study skills and vocabulary…

This manual for use by professionals, paraprofessionals, and tutors provides 10 multi-level, multi-purpose units for teaching children with reading, writing, or speech problems. The units were designed for use with preschool through sixth-grade students and consist of games, exercises, drills, evaluation, and suggestions for activities. The manual…

Differences in perceptual processes of good and poor readers relevant to single word perception have been studied in a series of experiments. The major differences between good and poor readers have been shown to occur at the level of the single word; other differences occur in knowledge of spelling patterns and ability to make use of letters'…

Seeking to discover how comprehensively and systematically one significant category of semantic elements is taught in current reading instructional material, a study surveyed the teaching and use of prefixes in the teachers' guides, readers, and workbooks (grades two to six) of six major reading series. Findings indicated that many of the most…

The writing and production of classroom publications can become a strong motivating factor in stimulating children to read. Since a wide variety of activities is necessary in compiling a class paper or magazine, all children can be involved. Guidelines should be established and followed concerning titles and themes for the publication, duties of…

The foundation for the word attack element of the Wisconsin Design for Reading Skill Development consists of the Outline of Reading Skills and related behavioral objectives. The list of word attack skills was originally drawn from a prepared curriculum guide of a public school system and subsequently refined. The skills are the ones commonly…

This working paper presents a twelve-part paridigm for testing the level of concept attainment in language arts. Items were selected for three topics: words, words in sentences, and connected discourse. Within each topic concepts presented in the middle elementary grades were identified, and ten concepts were randomly selected for each topic. Each…

As many schools are adapting to an ever-increasing broad range of learners, it becomes more important than ever to develop instruction to respond to these academically diverse students. Without differentiated reading instruction, some children will fall further behind, while others will be left unchallenged. This book presents the Small-Group…