"Leveled Literacy Intervention" ("LLI") is a short-term, supplementary, small-group literacy intervention designed to help struggling readers achieve grade-level competency. The intervention provides explicit instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, oral language skills, and…

"Words Their Way"[TM] is an approach to phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction for students in kindergarten through high school. The program can be implemented as a core or supplemental curriculum and aims to provide a practical way to study words with students. The purpose of word study (which involves examining, manipulating,…

In this paper, we adopt Bernstein's notion of the pedagogic device to serve as a framework for explaining conflict and change in the field of literacy education across the past few decades, particularly in England, the USA and Australia. Following an overview of the pedagogic device and related constructs, we examine the relationship between the…

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) is a peer-tutoring program. According to the developer's web site, it is designed to be incorporated into the existing curriculum with the goal of improving the academic performance of children with diverse academic needs. Teachers train students to use PALS procedures. Students partner with peers,…

"Earobics"[R] is interactive software that provides students in pre-K through third grade with individual, systematic instruction in early literacy skills as students interact with animated characters. "Earobics[R] Foundations" is a version for pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and first graders. "Earobics[R]…

A phonics advocate maintains that claims for results with the method called "assisted reading" or sentence reading are higher than can be expected. (MKM)

Instruction for beginning readers is thought to be needed on several fronts, including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. The National Reading Panel reviewed the findings of many experiments to determine whether there was sufficient scientific evidence to indicate the effectiveness of these forms of…

The voice of the government via the Reading Excellence Act gives the message that direct systematic intense phonics instruction will solve the reading problem, end debate, lead to student success in life beyond school, and provide teachers with the prestige of successful reading instruction. This paper takes a close look at systematic direct…

This report contains 11 recommendations and a call to action designed to ensure that every child in Idaho is able to read at the appropriate level by the end of third grade. It was requested by the 1997 Idaho Legislature, which acknowledged that reading is fundamental to a student's ability to achieve his or her full potential. The research…

Although converging evidence favors fostering phonemic segmentation and phonic decoding knowledge in the primary grades, there is little agreement on best ways to accomplish these goals. The well-documented importance of teacher expertise is often ignored. Administrators evaluating reading programs should exercise considerable skepticism and…

Teachers using the whole-language approach to reading instruction (instead of phonics readers and worksheets) claim this practice is child centered, allows student reading choices, develops the whole child, makes learning relevant, and promotes a lifelong love of learning. Whole-language teachers should adopt a transactional pedagogy and link…

The change in teachers' attitudes to the teaching of phonics has been one of the significant gains brought about by the National Literacy Strategy. Nevertheless, while phonics is now taught in a high percentage of lessons, there is still much further to go before the quality of the teaching is good enough to have the impact which is needed on…

The recent Carvo/Chall phonics debate (in the September and November "Kappan" issues) reduces children's early literacy development to a battle over methods. Reductionist disagreements and simplistic notions about complex behaviors must yield to a theoretically grounded, unified approach to literacy learning and instructional practices.…

This pilot study investigated the efficacy of "Phonics Alive 2: The Sound Blender", a computer-based phonological skills training program, delivered with both at-home and at-school components over a 10-week period, as a potential treatment of phonological dyslexia. Participants were 20 dyslexic primary students with an average delay of…

The Phonics Demonstration Project was developed through the Ohio Department of Education as a means for introducing systematic, direct phonics instruction in the primary grades. Twenty-one Ohio school districts participated in the program. Initial year evaluation of the project focused on whether systematic, intensive phonics instruction was being…