Supplementing a reading program as needed, this book presents reproducible patterns to make 25 mini-books to strengthen the skills of emerging readers (kindergarten and grade 1). The easy-to-make, easy-to-read mini-books are designed to build children's confidence as readers and help them gain fluency. The mini-books presented in the book are…

Phonological awareness has little, if anything, to do with reading or the acquisition of literacy. Learned opinion has been divided as to the relationship of phonological awareness and reading. Some scholars hold that the ability to analyze speech into discrete phonic segments is a precursor to, even a cause of, successful reading acquisition,…

For the first year in "what seems like eons," California's school districts will see an influx of new money, a large portion of it earmarked for developing competency in reading for students in kindergarten through grade 3. The expanded funding for reading results from a consensus among policy makers that the achievement of early…

A study determined if pairing children for reading in first grade would have an effect on their reading achievement. The subjects in this study came from one first grade class in a suburban school district. For 6 weeks, one group of emergent readers was paired with more able readers, while another group of emergent readers in the same class was…

A practicum addressed the problem of poor reading comprehension of average ability third graders in a southeastern U.S. elementary school. The target group consisted of 24 third-grade students from a low socio-economic background. The reading program was initiated to improve reading comprehension skills. The average test score on the basal reading…

To increase the reading level of students who come from homes where reading is not valued or modeled, a social context was created where inexperienced readers could interact with adults and books. Three students from homes where reading was not valued were read to by adults two to three times each day for six weeks. Discussion of the book was…

A study was conducted to determine if progress made by primary grade students in the Cranford Public Schools (New Jersey) placed in a Chapter 1 (formerly Title I) remedial reading program was reflected in their classroom performance in terms of (1) report card grades in reading, (2) maintenance of skills within the classroom, (3) placement in…

Subskills and strategies necessary to improve reading skills are considered. The hypothesis/testing model, useful at the intermediate reading level, is presented. Two experiments, with retarded and normal children, respectively, indicate hypothesis/test model success. Task analysis on model components is used to generate the seven subskills. (BJG)

A study was undertaken to examine the effect of parent tutoring on the reading scores of their children and on their own reading scores. The experimental group was composed of ten children who had just completed first grade and their parents. The control group was composed of ten nontutored children and their parents. All of the children were…

A teaching technique that leads to auditory conceptualization--the ability to determine the number and order of sounds embedded within syllables--shows promise of measurably improving the reading proficiency of children of all ability levels. Based on C. and P. Lindamood's published technique, "Auditory Discrimination in Depth," the…

The state's role in reading instruction improvement in California is illustrated by the Miller-Unruh Reading Act of 1965 which aims to prevent and correct reading disabilities at the elementary school level and to provide funds and services for special reading instruction. It requires that the Stanford Reading Test be given in May each year to…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of systematic instruction with cloze tasks on the reading achievement of primary grade children. The cloze procedure was selected as an instructional strategy because of the close relationship of the cloze procedure to the psycholinguistic model of the reading process. Twenty-two first and nine…

This program, included in "Effective Reading Programs...," serves 1,500-2,000 kindergarten and first-grade children in three districts. The program is designed to train school personnel to identify perceptual deficits in areas specifically undergirding the reading process in kindergarten or first-grade children and to implement needed…

The Cleveland Reading Improvement Project attempts to provide specialized reading instruction for disadvantaged pupils in the primary grades. The project utilized the services of a reading consultant in each target school and serves children who have been identified by their classroom teachers and school principals as experiencing difficulty in…

A teacher, who inherited a classroom with a piano, describes the benefits that class sing-a-longs brought to her third-graders. A bibliography of the class's favorite songbooks is appended. (SJL)