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…

To motivate students to read, it is important for teachers to teach the reader, not the reading. This article presents three strategies for accomplishing this: studying the child, not the book; focusing on students' reading lives and knowing them as readers; and thinking of students as readers. (SM)

A total reading program must provide for the sequential development of reading skills and the deliberate development of interest in reading. The prime means of accomplishing the goals of skills and interest in reading is use of a basal reading program along with independent reading. The basal reader is designed to provide for the sequential…

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…

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…

This paper offers suggestions in the form of six guidelines on how the teacher can build toward reading maturity in the classroom. The first guideline urges the teacher to remember that reading necessitates a total complex thinking process, one which will prevent persisting at one level of instruction longer than is necessary. Secondly, students…

This thesis explores some difficulties associated with the use of the cloze procedure, particularly in relation to the interpretation of an individual's score on a cloze test. Cloze tests were administered to 112 grade-six children in four schools. The results indicated that for the children in this study the easiest words to replace were those…

One of the programs included in "Effective Reading Programs...," this program serves more than 1,800 children in grades 1-8. Begun in 1972, this program is designed to provide a strong foundation in reading. The teachers in the district defined by behavioral objectives those reading skills essential to decode and comprehend unfamiliar…

This paper examines how students' independent reading of good books--one example is "The Phantom Tollbooth"--leads to improved reading performance. The paper also touches on the important factors that are impacting independent reading: priority and time. A literature review in the paper found, among other things, that the best predictor…

Individual Conferences to Promote Independent Reading is one of four classroom activities in the system of Individually Guided Motivation. A package of teacher-education materials designed to allow schools to implement the program of individual conferences was evaluted in six different school settings. Objectives were identified for both the…

A PROTOTYPIC GUIDE TO READING SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FOCUSES ON THE COGNITIVE SKILLS THAT INFLUENCE ACHIEVEMENT IN READING. THE GUIDE PROVIDES EXPLICIT STATEMENTS OF THE FOLLOWING SKILLS -- WORD RECOGNITION, COMPREHENSION, STUDY SKILLS, SELF-DIRECTED READING, INTERPRETIVE READING, AND CREATIVE READING--AND A SPECIFIC FRAMEWORK…

Describes New York City teachers' emphasis on independent reading, with the rest of their reading curriculum growing out of needs identified during that time. They begin with mini-lessons, then create social supports for reading, make independent reading central and collaborative, reinforce what works, make time for solitary reading, and learn…

Reading can become a central focus in family learning. Families should develop reading plans to encourage children to read. Families should develop their own home resource centers of books and other learning materials. (BJV)

This paper discusses the evaluation of the Intensive Reading Instructional Team (IRIT) program, a supplementary reading and language development program for third and fourth graders in the Hartford, Connecticut, public schools. The IRIT program and evaluation design are described, with tables illustrating evaluation data. Results indicate that the…