First grade students practiced reading ten unfamiliar function words; half studied the words embedded in printed sentences and half studied the words in unstructured lists and then listened to sentences comprised of the words. Posttest measures revealed that those who studied the sentences learned more about the syntactic/semantic identities of…

The use of increasingly more informative evaluations of a single innovation are documented. The innovation, The New Primary Grades Reading System (NRS), was implemented in a variety of settings, and the evaluations track the implementation from the early stages of pilot testing through large-scale adoption of the program. NRS is characterized as…

Various aspects of beginning reading programs in six countries are discussed in the five articles in this booklet. In the first article, the principles and methods of instruction used in Sweden are described and trends in beginning reading instruction are noted. The importance of a verbal environment, teacher competence, and early diagnosis in…

Designed as a practical guide for teachers, this book briefly reviews and discusses various aspects of phonics. Phonics is defined, and the part phonics has played in the teaching of reading in the past is considered. The use of phonics in teaching reading at the present is examined in relation to currently available research on various approaches…

Dyer's (1970) model was utilized to examine instructional practices and easy-to-change surrounding conditions variables related to effective primary grade reading programs. Hard-to-change surrounding conditions variables were used in regression analyses as predictors of fourth grade reading achievement in 844 (75%) of the Iowa elementary schools;…

Designed for primary teachers, this guide is divided into four parts. Part one provides background information related to understanding specific language disability, the need for early identification, phonics, the use of manuscript instead of cursive, and group therapy. Part two discusses the preparations that are to be made by the teacher,…

This program, included in "Effective Reading Programs...," is designed to minimize the rigidities of the typical basal, three-group plan for teaching primary-level reading. The program serves over 4600 students in grades one through three throughout the Seattle School District. The students come from both inner-city and residential areas…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Distar Reading and Language Program as a method for beginning reading instruction. The subjects in the Distar group were 24 prekindergarteners, 60 kindergarteners, and 68 first graders. There were 24 children in the control prekindergarten group, 61 in the kindergarten, and 72 in…

Results of two studies testing the effectiveness of the Visual-Linguistic Reading Program (Group A) as compared with that of a basal program using an overhead projector (Group B) and a basal program not using an overhead projector (Group C) are reported. Children from three cities in Minnesota, Florida, and California, 1,800 in the first study and…

Focusing on the teaching of reading, chapters in this book (written in French, but with brief English and German translations of chapter resumes) consist of lectures delivered at an international symposium on the teaching of reading held in Switzerland in September of 1971. The contents include: an introduction: opening statements delivered at the…

To more effectively meet individual differences and permit children to learn at their own rate, a list of behavioral objectives for teaching reading in the primary grades was developed. Nongraded primary reading skill sheets were compared with reading authorities' lists of basic reading skills, and a master skill sheet was used as the basis for…

The study reported was designed to test the hypothesis that no difference in reading achievement scores of second and third grade children requiring remediation would result between Ss receiving both regular classroom and Miller-Unruh Reading Center instruction and Ss receiving classroom instruction only. Reading Center instruction took a…

Word-learning and reading-readiness tasks administered to inner-city kindergartners indicated that readiness skills included both a general skill that predicted success for both sight-word and sound-symbol methods of instruction and other specific skills which predicted success for only one method of instruction. (AA)

This study was undertaken to determine whether afternoon reading instruction results in greater achievement for beginning readers than does morning instruction. One hundred first grade pupils participated in the study. Implications for practice and continued research are discussed. (Author/MT)

Investigates the teacher's role in a whole language classroom. Asserts that explicit written guidelines concerning the teacher's role in directing and supporting student learning should be available for novice teachers in training and for experienced teachers who want to shift from a conventional approach to a whole language approach. (MM)