Stagnant standardized test scores keep literacy achievement at the forefront of national education discussions. Increased conversations about the science of reading have propelled investigations into different types of phonics instruction. However, questions still linger such as "Which strategies are most effective for which students?",…

This report documents the norming study procedure used to produce the achievement and growth user norms for English MAP Reading Fluency Foundational Skills. It also provides snapshots of the achievement and growth norms for each grade and domain.

Knowing that each student's academic success relies on his/her reading proficiency, schools must implement effective instructional reading models so that students can move from learning to read to reading to learn in the early years of development. The purpose of this inquiry was to evaluate the effectiveness of a kindergarten and first grade…

This document was created in response to a request from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to the Wisconsin Minnesota Comprehensive Center (WMCC) Region 10 to provide information on high-quality, qualitative studies about K-2 explicit, systematic phonics instruction. This document is intended to supplement the review document:…

This document was created in response to a request from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to the Wisconsin Minnesota Comprehensive Center (WMCC) Region 10 to provide information on high-quality, qualitative studies about explicit, systematic phonics instruction in grades K-2. It is meant for internal use by the Department of Public…

Teaching systematic phonics effectively to beginning readers requires specialized knowledge and training which many primary grade teachers lack. The current study examined effects of a year-long mentoring program to improve teachers' knowledge and effectiveness in teaching phonics and the extent that it improved students' achievement in reading…

"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,…

A study of Spanish-speaking kindergartners demonstrates that phonological awareness develops across levels and is related to writing development. Children's ability to benefit from phonics depends on their writing level. Encouraging writing in kindergarten and first grade can stimulate analysis of spoken words and smaller units. (SK)

Contends that in order to have a successful writing workshop, teachers need to model writing for their students through interactive writing. Outlines a writing workshop which includes: a drawing stage; guided phonics-based spelling; adult underwriting and individual minilessons; large-group focused minilessons; "minisharing"; and the publication…

To make this report more readable for teachers and still present all the data, it was compiled in two parts: (1) Report to Teachers and (2) Technical Report. The investigation was conducted (1) to compare the longitudinal effects of the initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.) and traditional orthography (T.O.) beginning reading programs through and end…

Forty-eight kindergarten children were assigned to phoneme identity, phoneme manipulation, or language experience programs. Children in the manipulation program made greater gains in blending and segmentation, but children in the phoneme identity condition made greater gains on a test of phonetic cue reading. Implications for reading instruction…

A study compared the effects of a modified whole language approach with those obtained from a pure whole language approach on the decoding abilities of 20 kindergartners, assessed using Darrell Morris's Early Reading Screening Instrument. Subjects were selected from two similarly composed schools located in Albemarle County, Virginia. Ten students…

Suggests new bases of information that need to be considered in deciding how to handle phonics effectively in beginning reading and writing instruction. Presents a description of phonics instruction in the classroom of a teacher of a whole language kindergarten. (MG)

This study tested the hypothesis that Distar Reading's demonstrated effects with disadvantaged children can be generalized to children with disabilities. The study compared the effects of two synthetic phonics reading programs, Direct Instruction "Reading Mastery" (which incorporated features of Distar Reading) and Addison Wesley's…