Describes a reading/writing program that allowed second grade students who were poor readers to invent their own spellings for words as they wrote. Concludes that the program led students to write more, request more help with spelling, and feel better about their writing. (FL)

Presents a seven-step technique for teaching primary school students to recognize function words. Describes a method for eliciting parent help in the task and offers suggestions for review and follow-up activities. (FL)

Proposes the "say and write" method and the directed sentence reading method as ways of using language experience stories to develop children's sight vocabulary. (FL)

Analyzes six basal reading series and reveals that the number of "distant" stories--those with content that is not closely related to the reader's experience--increases with the age of the intended audience. (FL)

The study determined that parents from bilingual and culturally diverse environments could be trained by bilingual educators to enhance attitudes toward reading and reading-related behaviors of their primary level children. (Author/NQ)

Reviews the research on the initial teaching alphabet (i/t/a), the sources of conflict and misunderstanding involving its use, and its future in reading instruction. (FL)

Contends that the "basics" in reading are not skills but concepts the learner must acquire, and that the learner's role is central to this teaching philosophy. (FL)

Reports a study designed to determine whether students with learning problems could increase their own reading efficiency by learning through resources that complemented their perceptual strengths. Subjects were 16 children in a second grade learning disabilities class. Their reading vocabularies were improved during the perceptual program.…

Suggests three procedures for assessing children's concepts of reading and their understanding of the special language that teachers use during reading instruction: shared book experience, checking the conceptual outcomes of shared book experience, and using a story chart and cloze procedure to extend the conceptual framework of reading language.…

Discusses the characteristics of predictable books and ways to use them with first grade students. Offers a bibliography of such books. (FL)

Argues that Piagetian theory does not support the use of a code-breaking approach to teaching children to read prior to the advent of concrete operations. Suggests that primary instructional emphasis with these children should be placed upon the meaning-getting aspects of reading. (FL)

Analyzes some problems that can make beginning basal stories difficult for young readers to understand and offers suggestions for ways teachers can help alleviate the problems. (FL)

Suggests that videotapes of the teacher reading provides an easy independent activity for young children and also introduces them to many different types of story structures. (Author/FL)

The dimensions that interact during reading acquisition include properties of texts, the acquisition of reading skills and strategies, the development of cognitive and language skills, the influence of instruction, and the effects of motivational, cultural, and language variables. Discusses how these interactions may occur and describes three…

Provides suggestions and guidelines for creative writing activities. (MKM)