ONE OF THE USES FOR POETRY IN THE CLASSROOM IS THAT OF STUDYING THE WAY A POET EMPLOYS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE AND THE CONCRETE, SENSUAL IMAGE TO BRING INTO SHARP FOCUS, OR SUGGEST BY CONNOTATION, THE DEFINITION OF A SINGLE WORD. THIS, IN TURN, CAN LEAD TO STUDENT EXERCISES IN DEFINING WORDS IN CONCRETE SENSUAL LANGUAGE. BY TAKING A POEM WHICH SEEMS…

The hypothesis that a combined pictorial and textual stimulus would result in shared and thus reduced stimulus control was investigated. It was also hypothesized that interest-loading of the word stimuli would heighten the attention given to the stimulus. Colorful content words were pictorially representable nouns selected on the basis of their…

A limited analysis of alternative approaches to phonemic-level word attack instruction is provided in this document. The instruction segment begins with training in letter-sound correspondences for which mastery of certain skills is assumed. Instruction ends with the decoding of novel items having a consonant-vowel-consonant construction. Contents…

Training tasks that comprise the word attack component of phonics reading programs are discussed. Tasks that reflect phonics subskills are drawn from the literature, and variables that appear crucial in distinguishing these tasks are discussed. The analysis is viewed as necessary to generating research questions in a program attempting to assess…

Reported are the procedures, results, and conclusions of a study to determine the effects of available instances on the relationship of memory abilities to performance in a concept learning task. Subjects were 60 undergraduates from introductory educational psychology courses. Tests of six memory abilities were administered to subjects prior to…

Developed by the Oregon Elementary English Project, this curriculum unit intended for sixth graders focuses on words. The first lesson serves as an introduction and gives the teacher an opportunity to find out what the students know; lessons 2 through 6 are concerned with the rhetorical use of words (choosing words for their effect); the use of…

The purposes of the study were to determine whether phonic analysis training could be used to prepare children to be successful on the Auditory Analysis Test (AAT) of phonic skills and to then relate phonic knowledge to reading performance. Subjects were 40 first graders in suburban Pittsburgh who had attended kindergarten together. A group of 16…

One hundred thirty-eight second graders, identified by their teachers as "poor readers with incomplete phonics skills" were given four specially constructed tests of phonics skills: a context test over meaningful but visually unfamiliar words, an isolated sounds test, a McKee type multiple choice test, and a word completion test. Eighty…

Suggests teaching word attack skills using these steps: present, practice, apply, review, and re-review. (MKM)

Assesses the results of a study of spelling development on the junior high level. Concludes that spelling instruction in the upper grades is worthy of serious consideration. (NKA)

Describes three experiments exploring the learning of new words by university students. Among the findings are (1) students can learn word spellings while reading them in context, and (2) instructions to learn words and additional representations of a word facilitate learning. (HOD)

Reviews numerous meaning-based vocabulary methods that use comparing, contrasting, making analogies, or developing examples of concepts and relates them to the adult basic education setting. (JOW)

Sample etymological study lessons for the intermediate grades. (SP)