This study investigated the mediating effect of self-talk between positive and negative statements made by teachers and students' academic self-concepts (reading, mathematics, and learning). Participants were 269 students in grades 3-7 at a middle-class, metropolitan, Australian elementary school. A research assistant administered the following…

Tested the hypothesis that phonological mediation plays a critical role in the early development of reading and spelling in French. The findings corroborated predictions regarding performance involving pseudowords of different syllablic structures except for the failure to find differences between open and closed syllables. Results confirmed the…

Research with 32 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old British children demonstrated that children at different reading levels relied on different types of cues in recognizing words. Older children used grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules in recognizing words and were much more flexible than were beginning readers in their response patterns. (SLD)

Examines vocabulary growth and development, looking at conventional vocabulary instruction and its outcomes. Evidence that word list drills do not promote vocabulary growth effectively is presented, and suggestions are given for fostering increased vocabulary. Promoting wide reading is advocated as the best approach. (SLD)

Studied the relationship between the ease with which children use orthographic analogies and their reading skills. Results of an experiment using a reading age match design showed that poor readers performed as well as normal readers on orally presented measures of onset/rhyme sensitivity, but less well on visually/orally presented rhyme tasks.…

Examined sex differences in perceptual and cognitive abilities and in reading skills among 922 first graders in the United States, India, and Taiwan. Found that girls scored significantly higher than boys on reading skills, visual memory, directionality, and ability to track nonsymbolic figures. Urban children outscored rural children on four…

The ongoing debate between advocates of bilingual education and advocates of English-only instruction often fails to acknowledge classroom realities. The author, who has taught native Spanish speaking students in a variety of settings, draws on her experience to explain that not all bilingual programs are the same and that no program will…

This study examined the reading gains of students with mild disabilities who were taught with one of two programs: "Horizons Fast Track A-B" (Engelmann, Engelmann, & Seitz-Davis, 1997) or "Reading Mastery Fast Cycle" (Engelmann & Bruner, 1995). A quasi-experimental design with preexisting groups was used to examine…

Throughout the 1980s and early '90s, school leaders in Waterloo faced a gloomy horizon. Economic hardships, including declines in property values and rising unemployment, resulted in decreasing school enrollment and limited financial resources. By 1995, the district had accumulated several million dollars of debt. From 1995 to 2005, the student…

Purpose: This study examined (a) the extent of genetic and environmental influences on children's articulation and language difficulties and (b) the phenotypic associations between such difficulties and direct assessments of reading-related skills during early school-age years. Method: Behavioral genetic analyses focused on parent-report data…

An intervention designed to increase the reading skills, habits, and styles of low-performing elementary school students was implemented in the Dallas Independent School District (Texas). The issues surrounding implementation illustrate many of the problems of inner-city schooling and disadvantaged students and offer some solutions. The Reading…

The Cooperative Elementary School (CES) model involves the use of cooperative learning across a variety of content areas and full-scale mainstreaming of academically handicapped students. Teachers use peer coaching and plan in a cooperative manner. The model emphasizes teacher involvement in site-based management and parent involvement in the…

The relationship of comprehension monitoring to writing was investigated in a multiple-measure, longitudinal study of writing skill development. Subjects were approximately 100 elementary school students who were followed during the first three grades. At the end of first grade, relationships were found between ambiguity detection, reading, and…

A study investigated the role of phonemic information in young readers' silent reading comprehension. Subjects, 56 children in grades 2 and 4, from Seattle parochial schools, were blocked into groups based on their grade and skill level (skilled and less skilled). Each subject saw 48 sentences presented in a random order on an Apple II…

A program, Individualized Prescribed Instruction (IPI), designed to permit the individualization of elementary reading is described. The program is divided into four stages: prereading, decoding, transition, and skills development and application. The reading curriculum has been developed by sequencing the specific reading skills that need to be…