This paper reviews some recent research on the component skills necessary to learn to read by phonic techniques. The review is divided into four sections, each relating research on one of the skills necessary for novel word decoding. The four skill areas are: (1) learning invariant grapheme-phoneme correspondences; (2) relating the isolated letter…

Games and self-checking devices created by teachers to meet the immediate needs of their students can become part of the continuing program of informal diagnosis, small-group remediation, and individual instruction. The reading games outlined in this document have been divided into three basic formats--card games, board games, and self-checking…

Identifies two statistically significant prediction equations involving independent dynamics that are based on information provided by 225 primary teachers regarding (1) 14 predictor variables and (2) their orientations toward three instructional emphases: graphophonics, skills, and whole language. (NKA)

The "Phonic Remedial Reading Lessons" is a systematic, comprehensive phonics program designed for reading-disabled children. The 77 lessons teach about single letters and single sounds, two-letter sounds, consonant blends, graphemes, exceptions to configurations, and word building. The program's underlying strategies and other…

This news digest issue, which accompanies a bibliography titled "Learning Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities", focuses on two promising interventions for students with learning disabilities: helping students develop their use of learning strategies and helping them develop their phonological awareness. In the first…

This booklet is part of a series of seven booklets designed to introduce aspects of effective reading instruction that should be considered when teaching reading to students with disabilities. It focuses on essential skill building and teaching activities related to developing a child's phonological awareness. The methods described of teaching…

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)

Describes a pictogram system in which letters are made to look like human and animal characters as a way of teaching phonics to children; tells how teachers have imaginatively implemented the system through activities in such areas as drama, singing, and story telling. (GT)

Blending and spelling training were compared to determine which intervention would improve the decoding skills of two first-grade boys with learning disabilities. Although neither intervention proved superior, the children met the learning criterion with both interventions and demonstrated both maintenance and generalization of their skills. (DB)

Reviews "Thematic Units: An Integrated Approach to Teaching Science and Social Studies" (Fredericks, Meinbach, and Rothlein); "Using Poetry across the Curriculum: A Whole Language Approach" (Chatton); "Getting Down to Cases: Learning to Teach with Case Studies" (Wassermann); "Phonic Phacts" (Goodman); and "English As a Second Language: 25…

This article examines characteristics of low-performing readers, especially their poor word recognition skills; compares approaches to teaching word recognition to slow-learning children; identifies characteristics of successful methods of teaching word recognition; and concludes that phonics-based, thoroughly systematic, direct instruction is…

Two blending strategies for decoding words (pausing and not pausing between successive sounds) were compared with nine preschool children. Once mastered, segmenting by not pausing engendered high and sustained levels of word identification. Other findings indicated that sound identification abilities were necessary but not sufficient for decoding.…

This interview with Dr. Candace Bos, a professor of special education at the University of Arizona, discusses the need for informed, flexible teaching when working with students with learning disabilities, and the importance of addressing phonological awareness, decoding and fluency, comprehension, and content area reading. (CR)

The first-grade components of three textbook programs--mainstream basal, combined phonics and literature, and phonics emphasis--were compared on cognitive load (e.g., number of different words) and linguistic content (e.g., number of monosyllabic, simple vowel words). Three levels of three components of a program--literature anthologies, decodable…

This study compared the efficacy of two decoding skill-based programs, one based on explicit orthographic rime and one on grapheme--phoneme correspondences, to a control group exposed to an implicit phonics program. Children in both explicit decoding programs performed consistently better than the control group in the accuracy with which they read…