This paper provides an overview of the Four Blocks framework, a teaching framework developed by professional educators, that aims to teach all children to read by providing daily exposure to a variety of instructional approaches. Four Blocks is intended for use in regular, heterogeneously constructed K-3 classrooms. It supports individual learning…

The ability to read is critical for a child's future learning, and it opens the doors to social and economic advancement. Unfortunately, 17% to 20% of children in the United States encounter significant difficulties in learning to read. Although not all reading disabilities can be traced to obvious risk factors, such difficulties occur in…

A study examined the effectiveness of specific teaching strategies in the reading curriculum that would help underachieving first-grade students meet reading standards by the end of the school year. Subjects, 6 underachieving students, were given the Basic Phonics Skills Test (BPST), the Results high frequency word list, and the Results reading…

This study investigated what would happen when a student teacher incorporated different techniques for improving comprehension into a third-grade reading group consisting of 10 diverse students. The study noted how comprehension changed when students did creative writing in response to literature and how story mapping or character perspective…

Aiming to disprove the media's insistence that American schools are typically ill-equipped to teach children from low-income neighborhoods, this book describes a primary school teacher's use of a blend of meaningful and interesting reading material, early writing practice, speaking, and explicit instruction. It describes teaching methods in great…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of Project RIME (Reading Instructional Methods of Efficacy), a 3-year project to develop, field test, and disseminate a model of professional development for early elementary and special education teachers focusing on methods for teaching early reading and spelling to children at risk for…

"Between the Lions" is a Public Broadcasting System program promoting literacy for children 4 through 7 years combining state-of-the-art puppetry, animation, live action, and music to achieve its mission of helping young children learn to read. This guide is designed to help kindergarten teachers integrate "Between the Lions"…

Reports findings of a study of randomly selected Caldecott Award-winning books, suggesting that they can be used as a powerful resource for stimulating language development. Presents ideas for using the books in the classroom. (FL)

Describes a reading program that features systematic instruction in comprehension that has been developed for Polynesian and Hawaiian children identified as educationally high risk. (AEA)

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…

Examined the usefulness of various Western strategies to teach reading in an inservice program in Namibia designed to develop teachers' capacity to teach reading more effectively. Found that structured and bottom-up strategies were more effective than top-down strategies. Findings highlight the importance of using an eclectic approach to teaching…

Uses analogy of patchwork quilt square to describe the reading instruction methods comprising one school's first-grade reading program. Parts include guided reading and centers, guided writing, reading workshops, reading strategies, comprehension through retelling and responding, word study, good literature, a print-rich environment, and strong…

A survey of 549 kindergarten and first grade teachers examined attitudes toward, and knowledge of, beginning reading practices that have been shown to prevent reading failure, including explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and word identification skills. Teachers generally had positive attitudes toward explicit reading approaches, especially…

Investigates differences in reading acquisition processes between Dutch and Turkish children learning to read Dutch. Finds that both groups rely on comparable reading strategies. Presents a structural model to examine interactions between the various reading processes in Dutch. Suggests that children learning to read in a second language should…

Examines the degree to which whole language practices have become a part of reading instruction offered by first grade teachers in six school districts. Finds that teachers spent less than 10 percent of the reading instructional time engaged in practices which could be considered in agreement with whole language theory. (MG)