Cites a number of references from linguists and other researchers about the relative unimportance of knowing where to divide words according to rules. Offers alternative ideas for teaching syllabication. (FL)

Suggests categorization of words as an alternative to traditional word study. (MKM)

This Student Activity Book is designed to be used with the "Guidebook for Parents and Teachers" of the same series. The Level 3 activity book consists of worksheets intended to help children discover and practice the most important patterns and principles that govern English spelling and writing. It includes short and long vowels, punctuation,…

A study examined the effect of word study on second-grade students' application of spelling and phonics in their independent writing. Subjects were 19 second graders from a school in a north-central Indiana region marked by a broad range of social and economic levels. Data included a spelling inventory, independent writing samples, and student…

Discusses the effectiveness of two techniques of teaching vowel knowledge--the vowel-in-isolation approach and the phonogram approach. (FL)

Describes a simple, practical strategy for reaching into the inner world of children to strengthen their reading vocabularies. (FL)

A study analyzed whether a word study instruction based on open sorting would allow children to have more conventions or strategies available for spelling words in their written work. Subjects, all 22 third-grade students in a suburb of a large midwestern city, were given the Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge as pre- and posttests. Three…

Training tasks that comprise the word attack component of phonics reading programs are discussed. Tasks that reflect phonics subskills are drawn from the literature, and variables that appear crucial in distinguishing these tasks are discussed. The analysis is viewed as necessary to generating research questions in a program attempting to assess…

Instructions are provided for constructing a classroom learning center, with nine separate games and activities, to teach pupils to locate words in the dictionary through the use of guide words, entry words, and picture clues. (SJL)

Phonics teaches learners how to match the letters of the alphabet to the speech sounds they already know. At age five, children who are ready to learn to read have a vocabulary of some 5,000 words and understand far more than that when they hear them. The problem is that there are 44 sounds in English and only 26 letters in the alphabet. Phonics…

A component tryout of first-grade spelling was conducted using students who received concurrent reading instruction based on Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) materials. Pretest and posttest measures obtained from four comparable first-grade classes were used as baseline data against which to judge program effectiveness. This report describes…

Arguing that most basal reading programs lack appropriate instructional strategies for teaching irregular words, this paper summarizes a teaching strategy for introducing new irregular words to children and discusses learning activities to ensure students will have an instant recognition of these words. The paper suggests presenting three to six…

This study was initiated both to follow up an earlier investigation and to gather additional descriptive data regarding the relationship between the Prereading Skills Program and the Word Attack area of the "Wisconsin Design." Four Wisconsin schools participated. In this study, kindergarten students who had completed one year of…