Consisting of testimony and written statements presented to the House Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education, this report deals with the problem of illiteracy in the United States. Proceedings begin with a statement by Charles M. Richardson of Sperry Corporation, an education consultant and former reading tutor; Charles J.…

To determine whether reading and writing are as closely related as commonly supposed, a study estimated the amount of overlap that exists between several components of reading and writing knowledge. Data were obtained from 256 second graders and 251 fifth graders. Reading measures included tests of phonics (word knowledge), vocabulary (lexical…

While previous studies have investigated children's awareness of two units within words--syllables and phonemes, there is experimental evidence that children are also aware of intrasyllabic units (units intermediate in size between the syllable and the phoneme), and that these units may be useful for teaching phonological awareness and reading.…

This critical review of "Becoming a Nation of Readers" states that the Commission on Reading report contains sensible and practical recommendations, though it is not wholly representative of all the available research on reading and it contains occasional insensitivities to the potential problems within its recommendations. The first…

The rationale, development, and implementation of a reading program designed to teach disadvantaged children the skills prerequisite to learning to read are discussed in this paper. Of particular importance are skills in the recognition and manipulation of basic speech sounds, phonemes. The first of the program's three parts takes two and one-half…

A study investigated the proposition that males have a predominant tendency to encode visually when reading, whereas females tend to encode phonologically. Arabic symbols were used to teach a group of 24 college students to "read." Subjects were assigned randomly to one of two conditions: learning the symbols as "letters" one by one with the aid…

The applicability of phonics generalizations, particularly the rule "When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking and the second one is silent," is examined in this paper. The first section reports on a study of the applicability of the two vowel rule to words in first- and second-grade basal readers and on a core vocabulary list; the…

Approaches that appear most effective for teaching beginning reading to children who are having difficulty learning to read are discussed in this paper. Research indicates that a code-emphasis method produces the best results. To determine which type of code instruction is most appropriate, reading programs were analyzed in terms of content,…

This booklet contains over 35 sample student activities designed by teachers to support the development of prerequisite skills for reading comprehension and to offer opportunities for mastery learning. Activities are suggested in the areas of letter/sound relationships, word recognition, experiential concept development, cognitive concept…

This guide was developed for parents of young children to help them develop their child's readiness to learn to read and to help them teach beginning reading skills to their child. Background information on the reading process and a quiz entitled, "are you preparing your child to read?" are presented. Activities are suggested for reading…

THIS COMPILATION OF REPORTS, DISCUSSIONS, AND REVIEWS OF SPECIFIC METHODS OF TEACHING READING IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES INCLUDES A DESCRIPTION OF THE READING PROGRAM IN MINNEAPOLIS. THE METHODS INCLUDED IN THE REPORT ARE THE PHONIC-FIRST METHOD, THE USE OF BASAL READERS, THE LINGUISTIC APPROACH, THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET, THE…

A GUIDE FOR TEACHING PHONIC AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS AND OTHER WORD PERCEPTION SKILLS AT THE PRIMER LEVEL THROUGH GRADE 6 PROVIDES DEFINITIONS, EXAMPLES, AND SUGGESTIONS FOR THE TEACHER. INFORMATION IS PRESENTED WITHIN SIX CATEGORIES--(1) THE TOTAL READING PROGRAM, EMPHASIZING WORD PERCEPTION SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES, LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDINGS,…

The instructional materials for inservice teacher education that are described here focus on five different approaches to teaching reading--phonetics, multisensory, linguistic, language experience, and sight. The program stresses that no one approach is best for all children. This descriptive report provides information on the purposes and content…

The reading achievement of 376 second graders and the performances in oral reading and creative writing of 150 randomly selected subjects taught by three different methods were studied. All three approaches (basal reader, modified linguistic, and linguistic) were effective for reading instruction at the second-grade level. The largest differences…

To make sense of unknown words encountered in their reading, children must relate what they read to their prior knowledge. It is important to use children's language in early reading instruction, through the use of language experience stories that provide children with a natural transition from oral to written language. Nursery rhymes may also be…