It has been shown that some children with reading difficulties have underlying developmental delay and that this may be related to the persistence of primary reflexes. This study investigated the prevalence of persistent primary reflexes in the ordinary primary school population and how this related to other cognitive and social factors. Three…

Released by the New York City Board of Education, this document reports on the success of the Learning to Read Through the Arts program for grades two through six during the 1985-86 school year. The first section introduces the Chapter 1 program, which was offered for 32 weeks at 6 different New York City sites, and explains how students are…

Addressing the need for developmental or remedial reading and writing courses at the college level, this paper provides a broad perspective on the strengthening of such programs for students deficient in these skills. The paper first enumerates various reasons for developing reading-writing courses for pre-college students, then provides evidence…

Part of an investigation of the effectiveness of Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) Chapter 1 reading programs, this document reports on a study of 699 second and fourth grade students in Chapter 1 programs in Iowa. An introduction notes that the study was conducted to discover instructional characteristics that affect student…

An overview of a demonstration program in reading designed to improve students' reading skills and their attitudes toward reading at the middle school level is described in this booklet. Following introductory information about the program, the booklet lists some highlights of the program, including testing methods, student contracts, the point…

The use of microcomputers to teach underprepared readers at the City University of New York (CUNY) is the focus of this report. A review of the literature highlights both the instructional and the noninstructional uses to which computers are being put in the college reading classroom today. The report points out (1) that software is a problem,…

Eighth grade students whose reading achievement scores fell between second and fourth grade level were given an individualized self-concept approach to reading instruction in home economics. Causes for their reading difficulties were identified as lack of interest in school, no set goals, poor attitudes, poor attendance and suspensions, and…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Adolescent Literacy: Are We Overlooking the Struggling Teenage Reader? (Robert Rothman); (2) The "N-Word" and the Racial Dynamics of Teaching (Wendy Luttrell and Janie Ward);…

Compared 20 good and poor readers in a second-grade French immersion program to 20 good and poor readers in regular English second-grade classes on various indexes of reading accuracy and speed. Found that English-only students achieved independent reading in greater numbers than French immersion students did in either French or English. (MDM)

Reviews historical events that molded the field of learning disabilities (LDs); addresses issues related to the prevalence of LDs and advances in identification, classification, and intervention practices directed at children with LDs. While focus is placed on deficits in basic reading and early intervention, other academic, social, and behavioral…

As part of a three tier prevention model, first grade students in a large urban school district were screened with measures of phonological awareness and nonsense word fluency to determine those in need of a Tier 2 reading intervention. The 15 lowest performing English language learner (ELL) students were selected and received a manualized…

"Effective Reading" (ER) is a community college course designed to help developmental readers succeed in college reading through improved reading comprehension. The course is based on current research which indicates that successful comprehension can take place if students follow three steps: predicting (pre-reading strategies such as surveying…

The Brody Reading Method integrates four components to teach reading and written-language skills to elementary and secondary school students with reading difficulties. The program begins with syllabication for decoding, and then reinforces and expands those skills by providing structured application in content area reading, spelling, and…

This study was undertaken to identify the reading strategies which facilitated or inhibited the progress of adult beginning readers (ABRs). An ethnographic approach was used so that factors influencing the ABRs' acquisition of these reading strategies could be identified. Using an adapted form of the Goodman and Burke taxonomy of oral reading…

The nearly 40 research studies carried out in New Zealand during the last decade have resulted in some very important ideas. In the area of children and texts, research focused on how children learn from texts, and the resulting data suggest that children can and do teach themselves to read, learning from their mistakes. The complexity of the…