Tens of thousands of students begin each new school year with the hope that they will finally find "the" teacher who will help them succeed as readers, writers, and learners. This book shows how teachers can provide the type of differentiated instruction that struggling readers need by drawing on students' individual and cultural backgrounds, as…

This highly regarded work brings together prominent authorities on vocabulary teaching and learning to provide a comprehensive yet concise guide to effective instruction. The book showcases practical ways to teach specific vocabulary words and word-learning strategies and create engaging, word-rich classrooms. Instructional activities and games…

Explores the ways in which 11- and 12-year-old students used intertextuality within diverse literacy events in a classroom context. Reveals different patterns of intertextual connections depending on discourse mode (oral or written) and the functional context of discourse (literary or informational) in terms of the types of sources to which…

Reports the type and frequency of oral reading errors at independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels for 68 children in grades 4 through 6 and concludes that oral reading for diagnosis is both valuable and necessary. (MD)

Describes two studies designed to determine if a sentence verification technique would detect differences in performance when subjects read material of varying difficulty. Concludes that the technique was sensitive to differences in text difficulty and suggests several possible uses and advantages of the technique. (HOD)

Examines the relative effectiveness of dictionary definitions and definitions revised to address problems found in traditional definitions. Finds that revised definitions led to significantly more responses that demonstrated a characteristic use of the word. Concludes that revised definitions were more effective in helping students understand…

Reports on the second phase of a two-phase, two cohort componential analysis of reading. Finds a good fit for the grade four data, a reasonable fit for grade five, and a less unambiguous fit for grade six. Finds results are generally confirmed with the simultaneous structural analyses of phase one and phase two multisamples. (RS)

Finds that (1) exposure to correctly spelled words improved spelling accuracy for immediate and delayed posttests; (2) exposure to misspelled words did not significantly affect the spelling accuracy of the sample as a whole; and (3) no interaction was found between spelling ability and spelling accuracy improvement as the result of proofreading…

Examines the reading standards of eight cohorts (years 1989 to 1996) of Year 6 children from five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority in England. Finds little movement in the mean scores of the eight cohorts over time and, in fact, there has been a slight but significant decline in mean scores. (RS)

A study examined the dimensions of children's motivation for reading. Eleven different dimensions of reading motivations were proposed, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for reading, perceptions of reading efficacy, social aspects of reading, and reading disincentives. An 82-item questionnaire was developed to measure each dimension,…

A study established whether self-esteem had a positive significant effect on reading achievement. Data were collected from 117 fourth-grade students in a middle class suburban setting. Results of a self-esteem test (the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale) were correlated to standardized reading test scores (California Achievement…

This study examined whether post-reading comprehension would be affected by the inclusion of pictorial material with a story and a prereading prediction questionnaire. Subjects, 75 heterogeneously grouped fourth grade students randomly assigned to one of three groups, either (1) read a basal reader passage with pictorial material; or (2) read the…

THIS PAPER ON THE JOPLIN PLAN INCLUDES AN OUTLINE OF HISTORICAL MOVEMENTS LEADING TO THE JOPLIN PLAN AS IT IS KNOWN TODAY, A DESCRIPTION OF THE PLAN AS IT IS USED IN JOPLIN, A SURVEY OF VARIOUS STUDIES WHICH HAVE EMPLOYED THE PLAN, AND A DISCUSSION OF ITS ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS. TYPICALLY, THE JOPLIN PLAN GROUPS MIDDLE-GRADE CHILDREN FOR…