This article reports impacts of action research-oriented upgrading training given to teachers on early reading performances of Grades 2 & 3 students. Initially a baseline assessment was conducted to determine the initial reading performances of the students, and a survey was conducted to identify the training and experience teachers had in…

Close Reading utilizes several strategies to help readers think more critically about a text. Close reading can be performed within the context of shared readings, read-alouds by the teacher, literature discussion groups, and guided reading groups. Students attempting to more closely read difficult texts may benefit from technologies and platforms…

In fall of 2019, the EdWeek Research Center set out to gain a clearer sense of nationwide teacher and teacher education perceptions and practices by sending out two surveys about topics related to early reading instruction, especially as it related to phonics. One survey was taken by 674 K-2 and elementary special education teachers who indicated…

Outlines how contemporary reading theorists conceptualize reading fluency, discussing why it is a good indicator of reading process efficiency. Suggests ways to foster development of reading fluency. Children must acquire the automatic word and phrase processing that enables fluent reading and lets them allocate cognitive capacity to…

Investigates the effect of two repeated reading procedures on second grade transitional readers' oral reading performance with practiced and unpracticed passages. Found that reading rate, accuracy, comprehension and prosodic reading were significantly improved by repeated reading practice, regardless of training procedure employed. (SKC)

Investigated the relationship between oral language and early reading development by administering to 39 children a broad range of oral language, background, and reading ability measures in kindergarten and first and second grade. Overall, semantic abilities, not phonological awareness, predicted second grade reading comprehension. Phonological…

Background: Phonological awareness is known to be an excellent predictor of later reading acquisition. It remains unclear, however, whether phoneme manipulation alone best explains this association or whether an additional direct contribution of onset-rime awareness is predictive. This issue is explored here. Method: A longitudinal study is…

The "back to basics" movement raises questions regarding the nature of reading that is assumed in instruction and testing. Of the three definitions of reading (decoding, meaning-from-page, and intellectual processes) the latter view, which sees reading as a broad range of perceptual, associative, and cognitive elements, is preferred. The…

This collection of 9 papers from the International Reading Association's Reading Research 2001 Conference (RR2001) addresses comprehensive reading instruction across the grade levels. The introduction, "How Will We Develop the Concept of Comprehensive Reading Instruction Across Grade Levels?," notes that five quandaries arose in the discussion of…

Addressing the question of why some children manage to continue successfully through the later stages of literacy acquisition while others are unable to meet the challenges presented by fourth and fifth grade reading tasks, an 18-month, in-depth study was conducted of the home environment factors influencing the reading comprehension of second,…

The purpose of this book on reading instruction in the elementary school is twofold: firstly, to share with colleagues some of the significant works of research and theory that suggest answers to important questions about reading instruction, and secondly, to describe specific teaching strategies implied by these answers. The book assumes that…

Focusing on research about children's acquisition of reading and spelling skills, this paper discusses the larger picture of reading acquisition, issues addressed by research, and results of this research. The paper cites numerous studies on the subject, including studies on whether environmental print experiences enable young children to process…

Intended to provide a publication outlet for systematic and substantive reviews and syntheses, both empirical and theoretical, and for integrative reports of programatic research, this volume focuses on what children learn when learning to read, and how this learning can be facilitated. The first chapter of the volume offers an analysis of writing…

This thesis investigated the attitudes toward reading of elementary students in 3rd and 6th grade at a small, rural western Kansas school before and after implementing a read-aloud program. The sample consisted of 58 students--33 boys and 25 girls, including both the study group (n=30) and control group (n=28). Independent variables were…

The comprehension of a narrative passage by primary grade children as a function of both listening rate and the reading comprehension level was examined by this study. Ninety-six children divided into three groups according to reading level were used. The listening rate was controlled by means of a word compression ranging from zero (138 words per…