First-, second-, and third-grade readers were asked to pick items that differed in terms of a rule-governed description of orthographic structure. Task performance improved with school experience. Reading ability was positively correlated with knowledge of orthographic structure for young readers. (Author/PN)

Shows how a structured tutoring program helped increase both student and tutor reading scores. (JT)

Some things other than costs are going up in education, the National Assessment of Educational Progress discovers from its second round of reading tests. (Editor) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Results (Interpretation).

Targeted to a wide audience, this book is a highly readable, nontechnical work without sacrificing the informative value offered by the relevant empirical research. The book is organized into three sections that discuss why it's difficult to learn to read; existing scientific evidence in reading research; and practical solutions, based on the…

A program was designed to improve the progress of average and below average readers in a first-grade, a second-grade, and a sixth-grade classroom in a multicultural, multi-social economic district located in a three-county area northwest of Chicago, Illinois. Classroom teachers noted that students were having difficulty making adequate progress in…

A study on children's recall of words presented on a computer was assessed as a function of action and verbal labels. Subjects, 80 public school children in a southeastern city, equally distributed between kindergarten and second grade and between high and low reading ability levels, interacted with different versions of a computer presentation.…

In order to see if an extended-day kindergarten program has a greater effect than a half-day kindergarten program on reading achievement in the first-grade, a study compared standardized test scores of two different groups of first-grade students. Subjects, a group of 44 students who had participated in a half-day kindergarten program and a second…

A variety of techniques for improving readers' analysis-by-synthesis abilities (rapid, efficient reading typical of highly skilled readers) are presented in this paper. The techniques discussed in the first part emphasize improving reading comprehension and include the following: (1) modifications of the cloze procedure (encouraging readers to use…

Some practical ways to improve reading skills in social studies classes without sacrificing content objectives and goals are presented. It is emphasized that social studies teachers are best suited to teach reading skills in their own subject field. Social studies teachers need to focus on three reading skills: vocabulary development and word…

The purposes of this dissertation were to study the relationship between the use of performance objectives and the importance of reading comprehension; to ascertain the relationship between the use of performance objectives and the learning of textbook material; and to determine if, by providing training in the use of performance objectives, the…

The theoretical basis for a Figurative Therapy Reading Clinic in the elementary schools and the tentative structure for implementing that clinic as a pilot project are described in this paper. The contents include: "Figurative Therapy Defined," which refers to the psychoanalytic approach to art therapy; "The Objectives of the Figurative Therapy…

The first step in arriving at techniques for the improvement of reading rate is the careful and thoughtful formulation of a specific objective. Once a reading rate objective has been phrased, the next step is to examine all available resources of help in reaching that objective. These resources include films for use with regular motion picture…

This study assessed the first-year effects of Project Instruct on the acquisition of word attack skills by kindergarten children. Evaluation of the project was conducted in schools which contained a relatively large number of children classified as disabled readers. Kindergarten children in five elementary schools experienced the instructional…

This paper summarizes several research studies related to reading and writing disabilities in children. The major purpose of these investigations was to test some of the German theories on dyslexia, especially regarding visual perceptual problems, spatial orientation, and dominance factors. The dyslexic child, as defined in Germany and used in…

In this paper the author examines the more commonly accepted causes of failure in reading and argues that all of them are related to and explained by two major problems: the lack of proficiency in the spoken language and traditional orthography, the medium in which reading is most commonly taught. Each of the factors generally accepted as…