This paper discusses the rationale for designing better literacy assessment for elementary school children. The "Literacy Profile" is a literacy assessment procedure designed to collect data about groups of elementary students and track literacy development more effectively than current standardized tests. It assumes that literacy…

This booklet is designed to introduce aspects of effective reading instruction that should be considered when teaching reading to students with disabilities. An introduction discusses general principles for teaching reading to students with disabilities and emphasizes the importance of individually designing a program based on a student's…

Developed by classroom teachers during the development phase of Minnesota's Graduation Standards, these performance packages are made up of locally designed assignments that, taken together, show whether a student has learned and can apply the knowledge and skills related to comprehending literal meaning in reading, viewing and listening…

Concludes that cognitive development tasks may primarily evaluate reading readiness and suggests that proficient readers are particularly sensitive to semantic text cues. (FL)

Compares the reading comprehension and accuracy and listening comprehension of West Indian and English children living in England and having equivalent intellectual abilities. Finds no significant differences between the cultural groups. (FL)

An extensive case history of instructional environment and acquisition of reading skills by 50 first-grade students in ten classrooms indicates that the rate at which students mastered decoding depended on classroom instruction with direct instruction appearing most profitable for children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds. (MKM)

Readers share information on the use of the uninterrupted silent sustained reading method to change the reading attitudes of adult Native American students and on the use of taped books with high school remedial reading students. (MKM)

Examines the error patterns of 26 third grade developmental readers who read and reread extended oral passages at instructional and frustration performance levels. Suggests that consistent word recognition strategies are used by these developmental readers. (RL)

This study examined the effects of instructional match and content overlap on the ability of four students (ages 8-12) with mild disabilities to generalize from passage reading instruction. Results indicated that oral reading accuracy/fluency showed the greatest degree of generalization when instructional materials were matched to skill level…

This study examined the validity of a measure of reading proficiency in content areas with 121 grade-10 students. Correlational analyses revealed low-moderate to moderate correlations between reading measures and scores on a classroom study task, grade point average, and achievement test performance. Recommendations are made for implementation…

Evaluated the effects of a six-week interactive shared-reading intervention with 3- to 4-year olds from low-income families who attended subsidized child care. The intervention involved teacher-reading at school, parents-reading at home, both-reading, or a no-treatment control. Found that significant gains on measures of oral language and language…

Describes the specific aspects of a collaborative project designed to encourage teen parents to read to their children and discusses how various organizations were involved. Includes a bibliography of children's books and support materials purchased for the program. (NH)

A class of reluctant readers and writers responded positively when topics were discussed orally before writing. As writing improved, the author of this article introduced "Coffee House"--themed settings for oral performance of student writing. After modeling her own writing, the author invited students to perform, gratified when even the most…

The authors advocate that a high-quality curriculum is an important first step toward good teaching and successful learning. Good curriculum comes from knowing what students can do, can almost do, and need to learn how to do as readers, writers, and language users. In this book, the authors combine their experience and learning in literacy…

The interaction hypothesis proposes that valid test accommodations benefit only those with disabilities. To evaluate this hypothesis, Grade 3 students with word decoding difficulties identified with dyslexia and average decoders were randomly assigned to take the same version of the Texas reading accountability assessment under accommodated and…