This study focuses on the effectiveness and advantages of using an explicit phonics based reading program in kindergarten through second grade. The methods of decoding words that teachers introduce to the beginning readers must prove to be effective in introducing and building reading skills. Most recent studies have revisited and concurred with…

Studies the effects of reading instruction using D. Carnine and J. Silbert's "Direct Instruction Reading." Finds that direct instruction in phonics is more successful than basals at teaching the essential skills that provide the foundation for future success in reading. Dispels the myth that explicit phonics instruction interferes with…

Compares the phonetically regular orthography of Spanish with the phonetic inconsistencies of English. Reports on the role of phonics in six popular Spanish reading programs. Notes that the regularity of the Spanish language is compatible with the use of systematic phonics for reading instruction. (MM)

Notes that a major issue in literacy instruction today is whether commercial reading programs emphasizing phonemic awareness and phonics are more effective than teacher-designed programs that focus on literature-based reading and process writing with integrated skill instruction. Reviews two books that address this controversy. Presents seven…

A successful reading program is a broad-based personalized program that recognizes that reading is a mixture of various skills: phonemic awareness, grapho-phonemic correspondence, word analysis and synthesis, sight-word vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, semantic knowledge, and literary knowledge. Changes in instructional techniques are made based…

Are programs that emphasize systematic phonics instruction truly superior to other types of programs for young readers, as the National Reading Panel claims? The authors conducted a study of three different programs to see what kinds of readers are actually emerging from them. Two were commercial programs that used explicit and systematic phonics…

The student reader-workbook, third part of the "Chaa'" series, presents activities for the student to do orally and in writing. Pages are divided into four frames with the intention of completing each frame before continuing to the next frame in sequence. To allow children an opportunity to decode words at an early age, the code emphasis (phonics)…

The new editions of basal readers differ in significant ways from their predecessors: they are longer, more attractive, linguistically sounder, use larger vocabularies. (JH)

An attempt to build on oral language programs--such as the language experience approach--by adding a written language component and a phonics component, to make transition to reading more meaningful and reading skill development more systematic, was undertaken in the study described here. The program, called DIREKT, was conducted by two…

In the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) Beginning Reading Program, vowels are color-coded so that different spellings, representing a single vowel sound, maintain some feature in common. Such color-coding imposes a structure which effectively reduces the uncertainty in associating visually different stimuli with a similar oral…

A phonetically based reading program was designed for senior high school special education students utilizing the teaching techniques of behavior modification. Student success was the primary reinforcing agent. Students began by reading orally sound symbols printed on cards. Each day the individual students' oral reading was timed. Throughout the…

This report on Idaho's grant programs for reading improvement pinpoints two programs, the General Reading Improvement Program and the Reading Improvement with Phonics Program. The report states that the first program makes funds available to support kindergarten through sixth grade "reading recovery" or other locally developed methods…

This study focused on using technology to supplement a phonics based reading program. The research took place in a transition class (a class between kindergarten and first grade for students who are not mature enough for first grade but who do not need to repeat kindergarten) in Knox County (Tennessee) Schools. The class was divided into two…