This open access book presents insights into the current state of reading literacy in the Dinaric region, namely the education systems in Albania, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. A collection of analyses reveals factors influencing this key capacity of young pupils. Using data from IEA's Progress in…

This article describes a data-based continuous-improvement framework that can help school teams use what the authors call "systems-level data" to support teachers in achieving successful beginning reading outcomes for all students. The authors also furnish an example of an elementary school in the Pacific Northwest that uses such a…

A component of the "No Child Left Behind" Act (NCLB) (PL 107-110) is its emphasis on the importance of systematic and explicit instruction in early reading using practices that are grounded in scientific research. The Reading First legislation (Title I, Part B, Subpart 1) within NCLB is designed to support state and local education…

The article describes a procedure for teaching sound-letter relations and sound blending through a verbal/gestural prompting system and a variation of melodic intonation therapy (in which students learn simultaneously to talk and hum a monotone note). The three-step procedure features demonstration, prompting, and practice. (CL)

A resource teacher describes her approach to helping prepare reading disabled students to use commercial preprimer, primer, and first grade materials through specially designed cloze sentences interspersed with questions. (CL)

Books in which illustrations, rather than words, carry the story line are helpful in teaching hearing impaired students to read. Suggestions are made for using this approach with beginning readers, students in grades 3 through 6, and advanced readers. An annotated list of sources is also included. (CL)

The article describes ways to tell fairy stories and nursery rhymes to increase deaf students' prereading skills. Teachers are advised to repeat lines and phrases, repeat lines visually, identify linguistic structures, find recurring themes, express a moral view, build cognitive skills, recognize linguistic rituals, and provide opportunities for…

Contrast is one of the great principles of any art--two things that are different are put side-by-side so that both can be seen for comparison. This paper considers initially two kinds of contrast in phonics: the sounds of the five short vowels (a e i o u); and the sequence from left-to-right in sounding out the letters. The paper states that…

Laments the past misuse and misunderstanding of phonics. Introduces the term "new phonics" to describe the sophisticated, research-based phonics being used in the basal reading scheme, "Language in Action." (JL)

Reviews "Happily Ever After," a reading readiness program that is designed to help those children who lack many of the concepts and abilities assumed by most readiness programs. (FL)

A method for introducing hearing impaired preschoolers to a core basal reading series is described. Steps begin with having students react to pictures of their own experiences and express the plots of stories in language. (CL)

This article describes a program in which beginning readers dictate stories to accompany wordless picture books. The stories are turned into classroom "published books" which are used to teach reading and develop student confidence. Step-by-step directions and a brief list of wordless picture books are provided. (CR)

Based on the idea that word identification is a group of strategies that children develop as they learn to read, not a single letter-sound by letter-sound pathway to pronunciation, this book invites teachers to support readers as they develop and use many different world identification strategies. Chapters in the book are: (1) Using the Alphabetic…

Developed to provide supplementary instructional strategies for reading teachers at the kindergarten level, this booklet presents the instructional module for identifying rhyming words, a component of the Comprehensive Reading Program of the Chicago Public Schools. The activities in this booklet are presented in four developmental stages--the…

The paper describes the enactive method, an alternative approach to introducing and teaching reading to young hearing impaired children. The method actively involves the child as a processor of the material rather than as a passive consumer. The approach is established for a short period of time each day until the student outgrows its original…