This study is a retrospective examination of elements that influenced one elementary school staff to initiate and implement a school-wide innovation in their reading program in 1990-91. This school served 315 preschool children through grade three in a small town set in the rural countryside. Case study methodology was used to discover how the…

This 15-minute videotape describes the NewPhonics program, a developmentally appropriate program specifically for kindergarten and pre-first grade that fosters the skills necessary for early literacy learning. The video addresses the two necessary skills that children must possess to experience success in the early stages of literacy learning:…

The study investigated the phenomenon of invented spelling in the original composition of 10 first grade and 10 second grade native Spanish speaking children enrolled in a bilingual program. From an examination of over 200 pieces of writing, categories of spelling have been suggested and examples of each are given. (Author/NQA)

First-graders taught reading by phonics or language experience approach were compared on their ability to orally decode lists of words identified as either real or nonsense words. The two groups did not differ in overall correct responses, nor were their strategies influenced by the "real/nonsense" directions. (SJL)

Concludes that, of several reading readiness factors, knowledge of alphabet letter names is the best predictor of phonics skills other than vowel recognition and of reading abilities involving words in insolation, and that number knowledge is the best predictor of reading abilities involving words and syntax. (FL)

Describes a pictogram system in which letters are made to look like human and animal characters as a way of teaching phonics to children; tells how teachers have imaginatively implemented the system through activities in such areas as drama, singing, and story telling. (GT)

Blending and spelling training were compared to determine which intervention would improve the decoding skills of two first-grade boys with learning disabilities. Although neither intervention proved superior, the children met the learning criterion with both interventions and demonstrated both maintenance and generalization of their skills. (DB)

Five-year-olds learned to associate three- or four-letter abbreviations, or cues, with spoken words, in which one of the letters in the cue corresponded to a phoneme that was articulated similarly or dissimilarly. Children found the phonetic cues easier to learn than control cues, suggesting that children are sensitive to the phonological and…

This article proposes that meaning and form (the sound-letter correspondences) are both important in beginning reading, but that initially they should be taught separately. Support for this position is provided, and a two-stage model of preliteracy development is offered, with the first stage emphasizing meaning and the second stage emphasizing…

Six basal reader programs were examined in an effort to address questions raised by an earlier study of kindergarten reading instruction. It was determined that basal reading material did not allow teachers to offer flexible individual instruction to children and that first grade preprimers had an erratic prerequsite reliance on the phonics taught…

Twenty-six Finnish at-risk first-graders received practice in linguistic awareness. When compared to controls on phonological awareness, listening comprehension, and WISC-R scores, the intervention group showed a more rapid building-up of phonological awareness, especially phoneme-blending ability, as well as superiority in word recognition,…

There is continuous debate about which word recognition techniques should be taught, especially to early primary grade pupils. All learning activities provided in reading instruction should: (1) be meaningful; (2) have perceived purpose; (3) be interesting; (4) stress understandings, skills, and affective goals; (5) provide for individual…

A study examined the relationship between reading instruction and the development of decoding and spelling skills and the writing fluency of children with varying levels of phonemic awareness. First grade children from two classrooms in a rural Florida school district who began school high and low in phonemic awareness received either whole…

A study was conducted to explore how children learn to read in kindergarten. The study employed a heuristic model that included entering ability, home background, instructional processes, home support for literacy development, and measures of student ability at the end of kindergarten. Children were tested, whole-day classroom observations were…