The literature dealing with the identification process in beginning reading is surveyed. The first major section presents a review of the basal, Language Experience Approach, Phonic Word Method, linguistic, and i/t/a programs. Questions are raised about the empirical investigation of the subject matter and the instructional procedures used in…

Five hypotheses were tested in two longitudinal studies involving i/t/a used with primary-grade children in the Lompoc Unified School District of California. Parents were allowed to request i/t/a training, teachers were given instruction in i/t/a, and children received i/t/a training in first grade. Reading sections of the Stanford Achievement…

A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of six approaches to beginning reading instruction (basal, linguistic, phonic, programed reading, i/t/a, and unifon) in schools serving educationally disadvantaged children and to determine the effectiveness of lay aides in project classrooms. Subjects were approximately 4,000 pupils in primary…

THE RESULTS OF THE CONTINUATION OF THE COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM IN FIRST GRADE READING INSTRUCTION AT THE END OF SECOND GRADE ARE REPORTED. THE SECOND-GRADE PHASE WAS CONCERNED WITH (1) THE EXTENT TO WHICH READINESS SKILLS ARE RELATED TO READING ACHIEVEMENT AT THE END OF SECOND GRADE, (2) HOW THE VARIOUS METHODS OF INSTRUCTION COMPARE IN…

This publication contains papers contributed to the fifth Perspectives of Reading conference of the International Reading Association which focused on the teaching of beginning reading. The following approaches are described and evaluated: (1) individualized reading, (2) basal reading, (3) linguistic approach, (4) phonics approach, (5) new…

This manual, designed to follow "English Alphabet Book 1," presents an English phonetic reading program for children beginning to learn how to read. It contains an alphabet chart with pictures which symbolize words using the sounds of the respective letters. Other pages are devoted completely to the sounds of the vowels, reinforced with common…

This paper provides a rationale which rejects misinformation, assumptions, and biases as bases for decision making on the use of i.t.a. in teaching reading and writing to primary school children. A discussion is provided which questions the reality of professionalism in teacher-administrator populations as well as the reality of a concern for the…

This selective bibliography is one of nine documents compiled to provide titles and descriptions of useful and informative reading documents which were indexed into the ERIC system from 1966 to 1974. The 190 entries in this section of the bibliography concern methods in teaching reading and are arranged alphabetically by author in one of the…

Based on its use with first graders in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for an eleven year period, the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) appears to have a number of advantages for reading instruction. These years of research have indicated that the advantages of i.t.a. are that it permits the child to: advance more rapidly in reading and writing…

This paper analyzes some of the conditions affecting the introduction of innovations in reading instruction in post-war Britain. The relationship between these innovations and research is explored. Section one presents background information and discusses possible causes for the influx of innovative techniques in reading instruction in the 1950s…

Selected recent research studies are reviewed under the following headings: (1) perception pretraining for reading, (2) hierarchical arrangement of reading skills, (3) comparisons of suggested sequences of different basal series, (4) code versus meaning emphasis in beginning reading, and (5) the relative effectiveness of methods involving…

FOUR DIFFERENT READING PROGRAMS WERE EVALUATED USING 302 SECOND-GRADE PUPILS WHO HAD PARTICIPATED IN THE SAME PROGRAMS IN GRADE 1. IN ADDITION TO THE STUDY CONDUCTED IN THE SECOND GRADE, A PILOT STUDY WAS CONTINUED INTO GRADE 3, AND A MODIFIED VERSION OF THE GRADE 1 STUDY WAS MADE AGAIN IN GRADE 1. THE FOUR READING PROGRAMS INVOLVED WERE (1) A…

FOUR APPROACHES TO BEGINNING READING WERE EVALUATED IN A 3-YEAR STUDY OF ELEMENTARY PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NEW CASTLE, PENNSYLVANIA. THE FOUR APPROACHES USED WERE (1) A BASAL READER PROGRAM PUBLISHED BY SCOTT, FORESMAN AND CO. (1962), (2) A PHONIC PROGRAM UTILIZING CORRELATED FILMSTRIPS PUBLISHED BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT CO. (1963), (3) A COMBINATION…

During the first year of the program, 27 individual projects enrolling approximately 20,000 first-grade pupils were involved. Fifteen of these projects participated in a second-grade followup study. Some conclusions based on an analysis of data are (1) that prereading knowledge of letter names is the best single predictor of reading achievement in…

Twenty-seven summaries of first-grade reading studies sponsored by the United States Office of Education are included. The studies, done in the 1964-65 school year, were made in different localities, and each was concerned with a different problem. More than one-half of the directors were full-time college professors; a few were senior authors of…