The author reviews theory and research by Ehri and her colleagues to document how a scientific approach has been applied over the years to conduct controlled studies whose findings reveal how beginners learn to read words in and out of text. Words may be read by decoding letters into blended sounds or by predicting words from context, but the way…

Learning irregular words involves mental marking of irregular letters in the spelling, a process not fully understood. In a within-subjects experiment, we manipulated the type of scaffolding given to beginning readers to evoke mental marking. We pretested to sort 103 kindergarten and first-grade participants into sequential decoders, who decode…

This study, which was drawn from a larger published work, examined language proficiency and literacy skills predictive of learning content and function words via the commonly used practice of flashcard word reading, which tests word knowledge in isolation. The current study also investigated differences in word learning performance between…

Now in its sixth edition, "Striking a Balance" clearly illustrates how to create a comprehensive early literacy program that places direct skills instruction within the context of rich and varied reading and writing experiences. Text discussions, dynamic activities, and valuable appendices provide a variety of effective instructional…

Orthographic mapping (OM) involves the formation of letter-sound connections to bond the spellings, pronunciations, and meanings of specific words in memory. It explains how children learn to read words by sight, to spell words from memory, and to acquire vocabulary words from print. This development is portrayed by Ehri (2005a) as a sequence of…

This paper presents a concise model of literacy assessment based on the "simple view of reading" and the "simple view of writing". The approach targets directly the key skills and knowledge involved in reading, writing and spelling. It stands in contrast to the less precise and potentially more subjective "always-in-context" and "always-authentic"…

Difficulties with spelling can impact students' reading acquisition and writing, having a critical impact on overall literacy development. Students with learning disabilities (LD) often struggle with spelling. We describe a case study with three elementary-aged students with LD using a mnemonic approach to spelling sight words. Our approach,…

Presents two activities for building elementary school students' vocabulary skills and increasing their knowledge of phonics and spelling patterns. The primary activity involves word mapping. The intermediate activity helps students pronounce and understand unfamiliar, multisyllabic words. A reproducible page on vocabulary strategies is included.…

Reports a case study of the reading and spelling processes of a developmentally disabled child indicating that there was almost a complete lack of alphabetic functions, that reading appeared to be based on a "logographic lexicon," and that spelling was based on a letter sequence generator. (RS)

This study examined the validity and feasibility of a group-administered test of alphabetic reading skills for first-grade students. Two versions of a phonemic spelling test (production and multiple-choice) were administered in classroom groups to 153 students. Measures of vocabulary, phoneme awareness, letter sound knowledge, phonemic decoding,…