Headsprout Early Reading is a computer-based program designed on behavioral principles to enhance the basic skills that underpin the initial development of reading. In a within and between groups design, and using primary schools within Northern Ireland that had a currently high proportion of disadvantaged pupils, children who were behind their…

Background: Beginning reading skills are often taught using phonics. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of phonics with typically developing students, but less research has evaluated this method with students with intellectual disabilities. Method: This paper evaluated the computerized phonics-based intervention Headsprout Early Reading®…

This article compares the existing single-strategy approach towards the teaching of early literacy in schools in rural Cambodia with a multiple-strategy approach introduced as part of a reading intervention programme. Classroom observations, questionnaires and in-depth interviews with teachers were used to explore teachers' practices and…

This study sought to determine the effects of explicit phonics instruction and sight word instruction on the letter-sound identification and word reading of 13- to 15-year-old English language learners in the eighth grade who were identified as having intellectual disabilities (ID). Using a randomized single-subject design, four Hispanic students…

The purpose of this research is to share the reading assessments that graduate students selected for their clinical practice with struggling readers. After a careful look at assessments, their place in the recent shift to Response to Intervention (RTI), specifically regarding reading instruction and the preparation of reading…

This paper describes an action research project focusing on the effects of a phonics intervention on the reading fluency of high school students. Phonics instruction is normally associated with earlier stages of learners' reading development. If it is an effective tool for early readers, then it would seem that struggling readers at the high…

Second in a series based on classroom observations, this article recounts missed or misused opportunities for phonics instruction and suggests remedies. (RB)

Presents five basic decoding patterns which can be applied in a linguistic approach to teaching reading or spelling. (JM)

This study examined the effects of Making and Writing Words (MWW), a variation of the Making Words word study activity by Cunningham and Cunningham (1992), on second-grade students word learning. MWW was implemented daily with a group of second-grade students' over a five-month period. Results indicated that students who received the MWW treatment…

Using easy-to-understand models from everyday practice and supporting the classroom observations with research, this book describes how a teacher replaced traditional phonics instruction with strategies incorporating "onset" and "rime" that improved students' reading comprehension. The book notes that as students' level of comfort with phonics…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of systematic instruction with cloze tasks on the reading achievement of primary grade children. The cloze procedure was selected as an instructional strategy because of the close relationship of the cloze procedure to the psycholinguistic model of the reading process. Twenty-two first and nine…

Get your reading program on the right track using research-based teaching strategies from this helpful guide. Learn what you need to know about five essential elements of reading, why you should teach them, and how. A treasure chest of research-based instructional activities helps you: (1) Build students phonemic awareness; (2) Teach phonics and…

States that many American children have difficulty learning to read (44% read below grade level). Explains the viewpoint of the phonics group and what those involved with whole language believe. Calls for dispassionate inquiry into how to raise reading levels, instead of the battle of the two methodologies as exists now. (PA)

A total of 12 kindergarten children participated in a study to determine whether children with auditory learning disability would achieve significantly better scores in reading when taught by the sight method as compared with the phonetic method of instruction and whether such children would exhibit significantly better self-concepts when placed…