The purpose of this meta-analysis was to assess the overall effects of automaticity training of fundamental literacy component skills (i.e., letter names/sounds, individual words) on reading fluency and comprehension. Another purpose was to assess if the effects of automaticity training varied for reading fluency and comprehension. We identified…

This case study explores the introduction of a word study approach, Words Their Way (Pearson Education, n.d.), into 3 second-grade classrooms in the northeastern United States. Although phonics and spelling have been studied separately within classrooms (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Fresch, 2007; Graham & Santangelo, 2014; McCutchen et al.,…

This qualitative case study relates to the area of word study. The research examines how specific strategies support academic progress when students are stunted at one orthographic stage on the language continuum. Teachers and reading specialists who support language development for students in first through third grades were interviewed as…

The purpose of this feasibility study was to inform the development of an intervention to support reading and self-regulation for students with significant reading difficulties and disabilities (RDs), including dyslexia. Participants were 21 special educators, dyslexia specialists, and reading interventionists and 48 students in Grades 2 to 4.…

The purpose of this feasibility study was to inform the development of an intervention to support reading and self-regulation for students with significant reading difficulties and disabilities (RDs), including dyslexia. Participants were 21 special educators, dyslexia specialists, and reading interventionists and 48 students in Grades 2 to 4.…

In this study, researchers operated from cognitive and situated perspectives to understand how individual qualities and contextual factors influenced elementary special education teachers' learning in a multifaceted professional development (PD) project, Literacy Learning Cohort, focused on word study and fluency instruction. Grounded theory…

To address the issue of declining reading achievement in the school where she worked, the author analyzed reading records and written work of primary students attending several district elementary schools over the course of one school year. From that analysis, it appeared that an obstacle to reading success for many children in the third grade was…

A study analyzed whether a word study instruction based on open sorting would allow children to have more conventions or strategies available for spelling words in their written work. Subjects, all 22 third-grade students in a suburb of a large midwestern city, were given the Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge as pre- and posttests. Three…

In order to instill in children the skills which will be basic to their school experience, words implying a process (such as "hemp,""parasite," and "vanilla") may be "researched" by third and fourth graders through the use of a dictionary, an encyclopedia, a supplementary book on the subject, and an interview with an adult. The child makes a…

Instructions are provided for constructing a classroom learning center, with nine separate games and activities, to teach pupils to locate words in the dictionary through the use of guide words, entry words, and picture clues. (SJL)

Tests for four letter-sound generalizations--"c" pronounced as [k] or [s] and "a" pronounced as [ae] or [e]--were given to 73 first, second, and third grade children at six-week intervals during a single school year. Each test included five synthetic words (e.g., cipe, acim, bice, cib, ocet) for each generalization. Children responded individually…

Describes how one teacher helped students in her third grade class, who had below average spelling and reading skills, improve their reading achievement by using a structured, graded, multifaceted approach to spelling instruction. (ARH)

Developed by the Oregon Elementary English Project, this curriculum unit intended for grades three and four aims to (1) help students become aware of some of the sounds of the language; (2) help students discover how some of these sounds are pronounced; and (3) help students understand that with a limited number of sounds they can produce an…

Investigates whether a computer-based word study method, emphasizing automaticity of response, would improve students' word recognition, spelling, and oral reading performance. Finds support for a verbal efficiency theory of reading, in which the key to developing reading efficiency is developing word recognition that is automatic. (RS)

By using the Developmental Spelling Analysis, based on the spelling inventories developed at the University of Virginia, teachers can screen students for their present stages of word knowledge in an easy-to-administer format. The planning of developmentally appropriate activities for spelling instruction depends upon informed teachers who come to…