Over the past few decades, reading assessment has been pushed to the forefront of the national discussion about education. The most recent reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1994, 2001) made assessment a priority as administrators and teachers are attempting to meet increasing accountability standards, but measuring…

This article is a response to "Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS): A Tool for Evaluating Student Learning?" by Kamii and Manning (2005). The intent of their study was to evaluate how DIBELS and a writing test predict reading achievement, which was measured by scores on the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT) as well…

In this critique of current reading research and practice, the author contends that the extreme ambiguity of English spelling-sound correspondence has confined reading science to an insular, Anglocentric research agenda addressing theoretical and applied issues with limited relevance for a universal science of reading. The unique problems posed by…

Suggests that upper elementary teachers should watch for signs that readers are going through a transition stage from oral to silent reading. Notes that if students do not make the transition with their peers, they may need sustained one-on-one help, especially to improve their attitude and control their inner critic. Presents a case study. (RS)

Repetitions in children's oral reading are typically thought of as disruptive, signalling the kind of careless reading symptomatic of random eye movement or inattention to context. This perspective, however, runs contrary to clinical experiences, which have revealed that many repetitions are deliberate and benefit the reader by serving at least…

Reviews findings on miscue analysis, a psycholinguistic study that seeks to explain why and how readers produce inaccuracies when they read words from the page. Discusses the classification of miscues, oral reading vs. silent reading, and the importance of context. (KH)

Miscue analysis is a monitoring device that makes it possible to view the manner in which a student is processing a given reading selection; therefore, it is more appropriate than standardized reading tests for measuring the strengths and weaknesses of nontraditional students. Miscue analysis assumes that reading is a language process and that…

In the neurological impress method the teacher sits slightly behind the child, a book is held jointly, and the teacher and child read aloud simultaneously with the teacher directing his/her voice into the child's ear as the child slides a finger along each line following the words as they are spoken. No attempt is made to teach sounds or word…

Focuses on seven errors made by teachers of remedial reading in elementary, middle, and junior high school programs. Suggests corrections and acknowledges teachers who treat reading as a skill that can be learned and refined through reading. (JK)

Argues that J. R. Kendall and J. Hood have not clearly demonstrated that contextual strategies play a significant role in the ability of some disabled readers to understand passages, as well as or better than other students, although they read with less word recognition accuracy. (HOD)

While several of M. W. Sadow's arguments in the previous article convince the authors that poor contextual processing ability cannot account for the subjects' poor reading ability, they reject her argument that good contextual processing ability provides evidence of satisfactory passage understanding. (HOD)

The paper outlines the rationale and development of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) and its empirical support; summarizes two reading models (Chall's stages of reading development and LaBerge and Samuels' model of automaticity); and discusses how CBM, with its use of oral reading rate measures, and the reading models may validate each other.…

Reveals the phases through which an apathetic eighth-grade class of poor readers went on their way to becoming active learners. The phases included: (1) discussing attitudes and goals; (2) positive environment; (3) sharing literature through oral reading; (4) reading for an audience; and (5) active learning. (SKC)

Intended for reading teachers and teacher educators, this book provides an analysis of 12 fallacious beliefs thought to be responsible for the perpetuation of ineffective and inappropriate approaches to reading instruction. The introduction looks at the dangers of the myths that underlie reading instruction, discusses how the myths arise out of an…