This study compared the instructional effectiveness and efficiency of three word-reading interventions on cumulative number of words read accurately and cumulative learning rate. Participants were six first graders who needed intensive intervention services. Alternating treatment designs were used to compare the effects of interspersal drill, a…

A large body of research (Clay 1991; National Reading Panel 2000; Pressley 2000; Courtney & Abodeeb 2001) on young readers reveals that most children do not know how to check their understanding as they read, nor do educators give them the strategies to do so. Comprehension is the process of constructing meaning while interacting with text.…

Investigates children's reading strategies and progress when a meaning-based approach to reading instruction was implemented in a first-grade reading classroom. Describes the design of a reading program in which the teacher introduced totally predictable books, literacy-related centers, and minilessons in context on selected letter-sound…

Finds that an onset/rime analogy explanation accounted for the children's correct recodings of pseudowords better than a phoneme blending explanation, that the number of pseudowords children recoded correlated with the number of conventional words they recoded, and that children who were better able to conserve parts and wholes recoded more…

Investigates first graders' use of analogy in word decoding. Finds students read more words correctly after exposure to analogous clue words, and a dictation task accounted for large proportion of variance on decoding of analogous words. Suggests results clarify previous research, specifically, the helpfulness of clue words in decoding by analogy…

Relates a teacher's observations of first graders in a whole language classroom enabling each other to read. Suggests reading techniques which foster this collaborative learning. (PRA)

Examines and evaluates a guided reading lesson using a literature webbing strategy, with predictable books. Concludes that this approach significantly improved young readers' comprehension. (MG)

Examines the effect of teaching at-risk first graders paraphrasing and self-verbalization techniques to enhance metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. Finds that treatment groups performed at statistically higher levels than the control group. (RS)

A study examined the position of phonics instruction or direct skill instruction within the context of a whole language, meaning-based approach to reading instruction. A total of 22 first-grade students participated--12 students received instruction in phonics while 10 followed a meaning based curriculum. All were administered a phonics test and a…

A descriptive study examined reading errors of emergent at-risk readers to determine which cueing system(s) they used initially, and whether or not there were changes over time in cues they used during reading. Running records of 30 first-grade children (participating in Reading Recovery programs at urban or suburban public elementary schools in…

The purpose of this study was to determine if a parent workshop on reading strategies would increase students' use of reading strategies and improve both parent's and child's attitudes toward reading at home. Fourteen parents from an affluent suburban first grade attended. The parents represented students from below average to above average…

This paper reports on an examination of the strategies that one of the researchers (Donovan), then a first-grade teacher, modeled while reading information books aloud in class. Returning to previously tape-recorded read aloud sessions, the researchers studied student and teacher responses during the reading of six storybooks and six information…

Investigates the influence that instruction and the developmental stage of learning to read have on the reading concepts of first graders from skill-based and literature-based classrooms. Finds both groups exhibited high interest in learning and knowing words but that the literature group differed in their heightened metacognitive understandings,…

Considers two different views of beginning reading, one emphasizing the alphabetic nature of written language and the other focusing on contextual, as opposed to graphic, information. Examines different perspectives by evaluating oral reading errors in 15 first graders. Results support the influence of instructional approach on children's…

Investigates prediction instruction in three basal reading series. Finds that many basal reader materials do not contain explicit definitions of predictions, nor do they provide rationale statements related to prediction instruction. Discusses implications for prediction instruction in basal readers. (RS)