Investigates the strategic literacy knowledge, abilities, and potential of five Latino/a subjects (three were bilingual). Employs qualitative research methods and cognitive strategy lessons. Finds that students, with instructional support, implemented the focal strategies emphasized during the experiment and engaged in extended discourse which…

Investigates effects of reading group placement upon first and second grade students' growth in reading. Focuses on the balance between pace and success rate and on the effects of group characteristics on individual growth. Finds that group placement begins to adversely affect reading development only after children have acquired basic reading…

Results from a study to determine whether the effects of repeated readings are comparable for learning-disabled (LD) and nondisabled readers (N=50) indicate that, regardless of classification (LD or nondisabled) or level of functioning (instructional- or mastery-level), repeated readings produced more fluent reading and greater recall. (IAH)

Offers a typology of emergent literacy skills, reviews research relating emergent literacy to reading, and reviews evidence linking emergent literacy environments and development of emergent literacy skills. Proposes that emergent literacy consists of inside-out skills and outside-in skills that are influential at different times during reading…

This document describes the WORDS software, a computer program designed to evaluate a reading disabled student's sight word vocabulary using an Apple II microcomputer. A brief discussion of various methods of addressing reading difficulties precedes a detailed description of the WORDS program and its use. This description covers: (1) the…

A study investigated the effects of a spatial adjunct aid--maps--upon probed comprehension and free recall with respect to a text in which map-related information (macropropositions) could be clearly distinguished from more abstract information (micropropositions). Forty-eight tenth grade students were randomly assigned to either a control group…

The Ethnic Heritage Learning Center, designed to increase the reading skills of elementary students who are educationally and economically disadvantaged, is described in this paper. The major goal of the Center was to provide supplementary remedial reading instruction. In addition to the 250 students who were selected as a target group, the Center…

Fifty instructional modules designed to improve newspaper reading skills were field tested in this study. During a 50-day period, modules were used by Wilkes County, Georgia teachers as they saw fit in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade classes primarily for 338 students with poor reading skills. In summary, the effectiveness of the instructional…

The word-identification approach has long been the basis for teaching reading in both native and second languages. Recent work has a new approach, particularly that of Frank Smith, who developed a feature analysis model of reading. As we can identify letters in different configurations or before all the strokes are completed, so can we identify…

In Florida, Collier County Area Vocational-Technical Center's admissions policy for vocational programs admits all students who are prepared to learn, identifies those who require compensatory instruction, and channels both into appropriate programs by determining each student's reading achievement level and comparing it to the difficulty level of…

Outlines the importance of principals' focusing their school's curriculum on the development of reading skills through ideas such as (a) faculty inservice and orientation programs, (b) organization of faculty reading planning teams, (c) allocation of resources, (d) supportive classroom visits, and (e) informal evaluation systems to ascertain…

Presents conceptual framework for classification of poor readers based on a sample of over 5,214 children between 9 and 10.7 years. The framework is based on the notion of low achievers (those whose reading attainment is low but who attain the expected level) and underachievers (those whose reading is poor but who ought to read at a higher level).…

Supports predictions concerning two consequences of combining merit pay and other business practices within a reading program: (1) that school personnel would constrict their definitions of reading and reading instruction to those prescribed by district policy and that (2) teachers would consider reading instruction less fulfilling than they did…

This literature review examines the relationship between phonemic awareness and the ability to read. It addresses four main issues: (1) if phonemic awareness is a prerequisite for or a consequence of learning to read; (2) what is needed to teach phonemic awareness; (3) tasks or activities and assessment tools to develop phonemic awareness; and (4)…