Written for Spanish-speaking Puerto Rican agricultural workers, this course of study provides basic conversational concepts for those who have little or no acquaintance with English. Several important reasons for obtaining skill in the use of English are enumerated in the introductory paragraphs which are in Spanish. The text takes the student…

This case study reports the use of token reinforcement in remedial reading instruction with an eleven-year-old boy from rural Appalachia. During phase one, tokens were given for reading 50-word passages without error; token value was contingent upon the number of attempts necessary to read without error. During phase two, words missed in phase one…

This two-part paper emphasizes the importance of language enrichment and active listening skills as a basis for reading pleasure. While acknowledging the need for developing fundamental decoding skills, the first section advocates that adults read aloud to children from books reflecting the adult's reading interests, containing creative language,…

This report evaluates the fifth year of a supportive reading program for educationally disadvantaged children in grades two, three, and four. Students were tested for improvement in oral reading, total reading, grade placement, self-concept, attitude, and attendance. In addition, the parents of participating children were surveyed for their…

The competence of school-aged, black children in standard English (SE) grammatical forms, specifically, six verb structures that distinguish Black English from SE, is the focus of this study. The subjects were 198 kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade black children who attend four Title I schools in the New York City metropolitan area.…

Techniques for developing and using informal reading inventories are listed. Concepts and purposes of the inventory are suggested, and reading levels are defined. Suggestions are offered for individual and group inventories, material preparation and analysis, question formation and selection, methods of scoring and recording, and methods of…

Evaluated was the effectiveness of three training procedures (imitation training, imitation training with praise, and imitation training with points for an art supply contingency) in improving the oral reading accuracy and reading comprehension of a 13-year-old girl whose functional reading was at the second grade level. The procedures were…

To ascertain, classify, and evaluate the quality of prose and poetry read to pupils in grades 4-6 by their teachers and to determine some of the situational factors that affected this reading, a 30-item questionnaire containing objective multiple-choice items (concerning teacher background, library facilities, and read-aloud practices) and…

The "right to read" as a world and United States goal necessitates the maximum development of each student's reading ability, and this requires individual diagnosis and an eclectic approach to individual instruction. Among the skills which must continue to be developed beyond the primary grades are word-attack skills, vocabulary and concept…

Teachers should foster in children's writing the use of words with "sparkle" and "spin"--"sparkle" implying brightness and vitality, "spin" connoting industry, patience, and painstaking work. By providing creative listening experiences with good children's or adult literature, the teacher can encourage students to broaden their imaginations and…

A study was conducted with disadvantaged second-graders to test the value of oral reading of literature for increasing reading achievement, presenting books as a source of pleasure, and strengthening vocabulary by offering wider language models than the disadvantaged child's milieu provides. Teachers in the experimental group read, orally, a story…

This study examined the oral reading behavior of five junior college students of below average reading proficiency. The Reading Miscue Inventory (RMI) was used to analyze and compare the miscues they generated while reading two selections varying in difficulty. The study addressed itself to two main questions: Do these readers use a process…

In an attempt to demonstrate that the mismatch between the grammatical features of Black dialect and Standard English grammar used in children's reading materials is a source of reading interference, 67 second and third grade Black dialect speaking children each read orally a text written in Black dialect and a parallel text written in Standard…

Intensive studies of children's miscues in oral reading were conducted from 1965 through 1974 by researchers at Wayne State University. This volume contains the concepts and assumptions underlying that research, the basic research design, the complex nature and function of the Goodman Taxonomy of Oral Reading Miscues, the findings of the research,…

A high school teacher tells how student talk became an integral part of her teaching program. She devised oral language activities, including reading aloud, debate, and small group discussions. She also rearranged the classroom to encourage discussion. Encouraging classroom talk led to improved writing skills. (SKC)