Students with writing difficulties may have difficulty when writing informational text with source material due to (a) inexperience with such text and (b) difficulties reading and understanding source material. Teaching students to take notes related to informational text using text structures (e.g., description, compare/contrast) may help them…

Vocabulary acquisition is central to language learning, and many instructors believe that technology can facilitate this core activity. While numerous websites and apps offer language-learning activities and games, not all provide evidence that their content and techniques are effective. VocabularySpellingCity (VSC), however, commissioned a study…

Presents the results of a one-year study of the effectiveness of the Waterford Early Reading Program on kindergarten and first-grade children in a large urban school district in New York state. Concludes that the Waterford program failed to outperform non-Waterford classrooms in part because it did not simulate or encourage the social…

This report evaluates the Writing to Read (WTR) program instituted in 1988 in 13 West Virginia elementary schools as the result of a partnership between the IBM Corporation and the federal Appalachian Regional Commission. The WTR labs, also installed in 42 Kentucky and Virginia schools, use a computer-based instructional system to develop the…

A study focused on the effects of the Writing to Read program piloted at kindergarten and first grade levels in Community Consolidated School District 65. The report included measures of students' writing, performance on district-made and standardized reading tests, and a follow-up on second graders. Statistical techniques of group comparison and…

Describes the successes of Writing to Read (WTR) program used with students in kindergarten and grade one as well as with two key subgroups (low-socioeconomic students and males who lag behind in reading and writing). Finds that with this program these subgroups can progress in reading and writing, and fewer students are recommended for remedial…

The paper describes the Writing to Read instructional system and its implementation in five Albuquerque (New Mexico) public schools with kindergarten, first grade, and special education students. The Writing to Read System is a multisensory, multimedia literacy program and involves five types of materials: a computer-based instructional program;…

The goal of the Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction (ECRI) is to improve elementary and secondary students' ability to use their language--to read fluently and with expression, to understand what they read and hear, and to use this understanding so they can communicate effectively. ECRI is a pre- and in-service program for teachers to learn…

A two-year study determined the effects of a comprehensive cooperative-learning approach to reading and language arts instruction on students' achievement, attitudes, and metacognitive awareness. Students in second through sixth grades, some mainstreamed academically handicapped, worked in heterogeneous learning teams on reading and writing…

During the 1988-89 school year, 55 Writing to Read (WTR) labs were installed in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia elementary schools, as the result of a partnership between the Appalachian Regional Commission and the IBM Corporation. This report evaluates the WTR program implemented in 13 southern West Virginia rural schools with poor,…

Children in Columbus, Ohio public schools participated in two nontraditional kindergarten programs during the 1986-1987 school year. Evaluations of the programs were undertaken to determine their success. One program involved a full day kindergarten that featured opportunities for increased personal and social development, as well as instruction…

Description of the "Writing to Read" (WTR) program highlights an evaluation of the WTR experience with first graders at two British Columbia schools. Treatments for experimental and control groups are described and measures used for the comparisons are explained, including reading readiness, reading achievement, and writing achievement.…