Public elementary schools in the Republic of Korea (Korea) do not reliably include phonics in their third and fourth grade English language curriculum. Therefore, examining how teachers are currently including phonics instructions in the classroom could significantly impact the level of reading skills acquired in English as a Foreign Language…

The purpose of this study was to provide data about the effects of early literacy instructional methods on later elementary reading performance. This study compared students who were introduced to reading through a synthetic phonics approach in contrast to students who were introduced to reading through an analytic phonics approach. Quantitative…

This study was designed to highlight how students best learn to learn to read, best practices of reading instruction, innovative resources, and effective instructional strategies. The aim of this dissertation was to address the problem of kindergarten through fourth grade students in the United States not reading on grade level. The purpose of…

Researchers conducted an observation study to explore the instructional practices of special education teachers (N = 20) responsible for teaching reading to students with learning disabilities in Grades 4 and 5. With this study, researchers addressed gaps in previous related literature and improved understanding of how teachers spend their time…

The role of phonics instruction in early reading development has been the subject of significant conjecture. Recently, England implemented a phonics screening check to assess the phonetic decoding of 6-year-old students, to ensure that all students master this foundational literacy skill and attain adequate phonemic awareness in the early years of…

This study reports on the instruction provided in district-designed intensive summer reading programs. The Tier 3 intervention was provided to 374 students from 24 school districts who were not meeting the end of third-grade reading benchmarks; students were exiting third grade and entering fourth grade. Observations of the 40 classes were…

More than 5 million English learners attend U.S. public schools--and yet fewer than 3% of teachers are certified to work with them. Fill that gap in teacher education with this practical and comprehensive textbook, an evidence-based guide to providing English learners in Pre-K-Grade 6 with explicit, systematic instruction on language and literacy…

Important strides have been made in the science of learning to read. Yet, many students still struggle to attain reading proficiency. This calls for sustained efforts to bridge theoretical insights with applied considerations about ideal pedagogy. The current study was designed to contribute to this conversation, namely by looking at the efficacy…

This comparative case study explains the perspectives, experiences, and instructional contexts of teachers working with English Learners (EL) in Grades 3-5 to plan, deliver, and assess Second Language Morphological Awareness (L2MA) across three different program models. ELs have experienced low levels of reading comprehension since the inception…

For their 61st annual conference, the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) met in St. Petersburg, Florida. This year's conference theme was "Engaging All Readers through Explorations of Literacy, Language, and Culture," which was also used as the title for this year's "Yearbook." This "Yearbook"…

This study to determine whether or not the teaching of selected lessons in syllabication would improve spelling achievement was conducted among fourth-grade pupils in 18 elementary schools in Modesto, California. There were three major steps to the experiment: (1) the administration of three pre-tests to both a control group (192 pupils) and an…

Concludes that fourth-grade children were able to apply more phonics terms than they could define and that high ability readers could define more terms than could low level readers. (FL)

A study examined the ability of third, fourth, and sixth grade students to use spellings to arrive at the pronunciations of unknown words. A test of 29 pseudo words was developed. Pseudo words were chosen because they eliminate familiarity with a word in its spoken form and contextual cues as sources of help in decoding. At the start of the test,…

The effectiveness of the impress method of reading instruction, in which the student and teacher read aloud simultaneously, was studied. The subjects were 24 fourth and fifth grade students from a New Jersey school, whose reading level was a year or more below grade placement (indicated by scores on a standardized achievement test) and who…

Identifies effective teaching methods that can enhance the reading skills of fourth grade African American students. Notes that the teachers identified independent reading and writing, phonics and vocabulary, teacher modeling, the use of multicultural materials, engagement of parental involvement, incorporating prior knowledge, and cooperative…