Explains repeated readings and the procedures involved. Looks at the reading miscues of a seven-year-old child over successive readings of a text to learn what miscue analysis reveals about repeated readings, fluency, and the word recognition view of reading. (SR)

Traces the history of reading instruction in the United States, discussing books about teaching reading which exerted great influence in their respective eras. Discusses the "First-Grade Studies" (begun in 1964), a cooperative effort to analyze study results on teaching reading. (PA)

Reflects on the 30th anniversary of the publication of the "First-Grade Studies." States that what can be learned is that "It all depends" is the most effective approach to teaching reading and that pretty much any alternative method was superior to the "look-say" basals popular in the early 1960s. (PA)

Reviews the "First-Grade Studies." Finds the studies represent a particular ideological and power relationship within the academy; cooperative research efforts can be a powerful force in shaping understanding of reading research and instruction; there is no best way to teach beginning reading; race, class, and language are important variables in…

Describes the experiences of an undergraduate student in a reading methods course during her practicum of tutoring a young child with reading difficulties. Discusses how she finally found a motivational tool that repeatedly engaged the child--tape recording the child as he read a predictable book and playing the tape back for the child to listen…

Investigates children's reading strategies and progress when a meaning-based approach to reading instruction was implemented in a first-grade reading classroom. Describes the design of a reading program in which the teacher introduced totally predictable books, literacy-related centers, and minilessons in context on selected letter-sound…

Notes that to work at the cutting edge of children's reading development, primary-grade teachers need to consider some important questions about materials and curriculum. Discusses why word-recognition prompts are important, describes research on word-recognition prompts, and discusses teachers' materials and word-recognition prompts. Considers…

Describes authors' experience of a "literacy dig" during their second Reading Initiative meeting, in which they searched for literacy in uncommon places. Explains how this exercise caused them to shift from deficit learning to acknowledging that children know how to read and write and need support and guidance. Outlines the authors' experience…

Outlines the following teaching strategies to improve the reading fluency of beginning readers: paired reading, echo reading, mumble reading, chanting lists or stories, repeated and choral readings, memorization tasks, and phrase boundary marking. (MM)

Describes a reading lesson which adapts and changes common children's songs to fit any theme. Notes that the songs may be used to teach various reading concepts and that the songwriting process results in a class book written by students that all of the students can read and sing. (SR)

A primary-grade teacher describes how she uses singing to teach phonics in her classroom. Notes how children are helped to integrate the three cuing systems of language--semantic, syntactic, and graphophonemic--as they read and sing together. (ET)

Describes several instructional strategies that were used in an earlier research study for moving children into successful fingerpoint-reading and beyond within the setting of a Shared Book Experience. Reports some additional data supporting the use of these strategies. (RS)

Finds considerable instability across two administrations of Carbo's Reading Styles Inventory (RSI), for both the reading methods and the recommended adjustments for implementing the methods. Finds it unlikely that reported benefits from adjusting instruction based on the RSI derive from matching a method to assessed style. (SR)

Describes the Cooperative Reading Activity (CRA), a technique used with third graders to show them that everyone could read a part of a literature selection and contribute to another's learning. (PRA)