Inability to learn to read is the major reason students fail or experience learning problems in their early school years. In an effort to solve the problem, the Glenwood, Minnesota, school district has developed an identification/intervention program entitled "The Prevention of Early Reading Casualties" (PERC) to prevent academic failure in…

Designed to be immediately useful and practical for language arts teachers in the secondary schools, the six articles in this monograph are illustrative not only of methods but of pedagogical processes that are the components of successful teaching. The first article offers more than 20 ways of motivating and involving the nonreader and describes…

This manual for nonprofessional tutors in remedial reading programs outside of the established educational structure deals with specific techniques needed for teaching children, adolescents, and adults to read. It describes the problems of the student who comes for instruction and discusses the relationship between him and the tutor. It outlines…

Studies of the etiological factors in reading disability and approaches, generally visual-perceptual, to the problem are presented. Krippner's study presents 15 causes of reading disability and reveals poor visual-perceptual skills as the most common cause. The Olson-Mitchell-Westberg study attempts to determine the effects of visual training upon…

This bulletin is published annually in the interest of children with learning disabilities, language disabilities, or dyslexia. Specific topics covered in the 17 articles include: the effect of student failure on the quality of family life and community mental health; selecting initial reading instruction for high-risk children; the relationship…

Research studies have attributed the reading failure of children from low socioeconomic groups to factors such as hunger, poor physical health, substandard living conditions, and the language mismatch that results from the difference between spoken nonstandard dialect and printed standard English. While each of these does influence reading…

This compilation consists of a series of articles on selected aspects of reading problems. In her preface, the compiler insists upon the educational value of examining several perspectives on the same problem; thus, this book contains discussion by linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, economists, and specialists in certain…

Presents three principles for working with poor readers in the upper elementary grades: (1) bring the class together as a literate community; (2) integrate reading and writing instruction; and (3) provide instruction on specific skills. Describes how one teacher, through application of these principles, helped a student overcome his reading…

Contains an assessment of the inner-city literacy crisis, a critique of rationales for reading failure based on "deficit" and "difference" type ideologies, a call for the study of successful inner-city schools, an evaluation of G. Weber's study of successful inner-city schools, and the development of an urban literacy agenda. (FL)

Presents a father's perspective on the outcome of tracking in school. Describes how a child with an early love of literacy ended up as a disabled reader. Points out how grouping and tracking systematically destroyed the child's ability and interest in reading. (SR)

Argues that effective instruction for children with reading difficulties relies little on accurate diagnosis. Maintains that standardized reading tests can help identify children with reading problems. Asserts that children with reading difficulties would be better served by more instruction and less diagnosis. (CFR)

The purpose of this study was to contribute to and strengthen previous work that examined the long-lasting effects of Reading Recovery in statewide efforts aimed at bolstering early literacy achievement and reducing early learning difficulties. Specifically, the study explored the literacy achievement of Reading Recovery participants whose series…

Reading Recovery is a short-term intervention for first-grade children with reading and writing difficulties. This longitudinal study investigated the performance of a cohort of 1998 Reading Recovery students on later literacy achievement as measured by the 2001 Grade 4 Maine Educational Assessment (MEA). The results showed that the average MEA…

Achievement in most academic areas depends on reading. This study examines the relationship between play therapy and reading. Twenty-four first graders from two North Louisiana schools, who were repeating first grade and who had scored lowest on the Gates MacGinite Reading Test (GMRT) and the Stanford Reading Achievement Test the previous year,…

The orthodox view of reading as the accumulation of isolated skills continues to dominate classroom practice. Under this framework, prescriptions for problem readers usually involve intensified drills in the same basic skills to which the students failed to respond in the first place. Prevention entails the early and often precipitous examination…