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…

Since Emmett Betts first devised a framework of independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels in the 1940s, these levels have played a large role in classroom assessment and instruction. It is important for teachers to have a deep understanding of the research that supports the reading level framework. This article identifies four key…

CD-ROM storybooks may facilitate reading comprehension for students who are struggling with reading comprehension. Therefore, the use of CD-ROM storybooks in the classroom as part of a reading instruction program, literacy center, or for independent reading time could benefit young readers. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

A great reading conference only takes five minutes, but its impact can last a lifetime. That is because conferences are the critical, one-to-one teaching that forms the backbone of reading instruction. This book shows teachers how to confer well and demonstrates why a few moments with students every week can put them on the path to becoming…

Reprints a classic article published in this journal in 1970. Considers the interplay between interest, motivation, and self direction on the one hand, and the reading levels concept on the other hand. Warns that the concept of reading levels is often focused on errors, and that this tends to distort perceptions with regard to the primary goal of…

All students, including struggling readers, need opportunities to make choices in their reading. Schools should shun round-robin oral reading and basal readers, prioritize reading time, allocate resources for varied reading materials keyed to student interests, and develop better reading teachers, not better reading programs. (Contains 20…

One of the programs included in "Effective Reading Programs...," this program, begun in 1972, serves about 3,600 disadvantaged first through fourth grade students. The independent learning approach is featured in this program. Placement tests help teachers determine each child's needs, and diagnostic tests monitor student progress.…

The reading workshop is not based on ability groups, but provides a venue to focus on each student's strengths and needs. Components include a teacher-sharing time, focus lesson, state-of-the-class conference, self-selected reading and responding time, and student-sharing time. (MLH)

If children's satisfaction in and through books is not diminished by reading instructional practice or lack of reading proficiency, and if the thrust of reading enjoyment adds momentum to the instructional program, it is indeed within the realm of teacher expectation, of possibility and plausibility, that book awards for progress or achievement…

A balanced approach to reading instruction favors cultivating reading as a strategic activity that requires intentionality, interest, and motivation on the part of the learner. Includes references. (MD)

The goals of this study were to (a) develop an empirically based model regarding the development of fluent and automatic reading in the early elementary school years and (b) determine whether fluent text-reading skills provided benefits for reading comprehension beyond those accounted for by fluent word decoding. First-, second-, and third-grade…

Three activities are presented that provide opportunities for independent research, expanded learning and the exchange of ideas: the "Think Box,""Inquiry Reading" and "Operation Interaction," to give skilled readers the enrichment and challenge they need. (Author)

Reading as a pastime is basic to creativity and intellectual mind expansion as well as to the appropriate development of listening skills. Reasons for the decline of listening and communication skills can be attributed in part to misuse of media, to latch-key children, to decreased support from parents for reading at home, to lack of sufficient…

Outlines several ways to teach children to want to read, including surrounding them with books, becoming a role model, reading aloud to students, providing time for pleasure reading, and reading during reading time. (SR)

A study compared the amount of time spent in reading at different grade levels between 1961 and 1985, specifically examining the differences in time allocation practices for formal reading and for other reading, and the ways in which these practices compare in different geographic regions during these years. The 1961 study obtained data from 1,224…