Describes a severely disabled child's successful integration into a class of 22 first graders at a suburban Atlanta elementary school. Katie, who experienced visual impairment, multiple physical disabilities, and moderate intellectual disability, received two hours of support from a special-education teacher assistant and additional help from…

An elementary education professor taught first grade for a year and developed a balanced program for beginning readers that blended instructional methods from skills-based and holistic perspectives. The program consisted of five complementary parts: teacher read-alouds, sustained silent reading, decoding instruction, shared reading, and writing…