This case study explored professional development centered on explicit teaching strategies with in-service first-grade teachers as they engaged beginning readers to consider stronger self-awareness of their thinking processes as they read. In this paper, we report on how teacher beliefs shifted regarding the impact of explicit versus implicit…

This was a qualitative case study that compared data across six district-level literacy coaches' epistemological and ontological beliefs about how to teach reading. All six coaches were working as a cohort of literacy coaches on the development and implementation of a secondary reading intervention program for seventh-grade struggling readers.…

Transcriptions of a teacher using the "look and say" method of teaching reading to her beginners grade are analyzed. Methodological problems are identified and related to the children's view of the reading process and to their views of themselves as learners. The language experience approach is also discussed. (Author/KC)

Following instruction using a stimulus equivalence procedure to teach matching of dictated picture names with printed words, two preschool children were also able to match pictures with printed words, match printed words with pictures, or match printed words with oral names. Results have implications for teaching early reading skills. (Author/DB)

This article discusses issues in the assessment of individuals who show difficulty in learning to read and write in different languages. A review of reading studies in several language contexts leads to a proposed framework for assessment procedures. Case studies from interventions in three language contexts (Sylheti/English, Herero/English,…

Attempts to enhance classroom teachers' awareness of potential problems that can result when discrepancies exist between children's entry schema and the schema which undergirds the school's instructional program. Discuses a case study of a child who became at risk for reading failure when a mismatch developed between the child's internalized…

Presents case study of two teachers teaching reading in first year of school. Found very little direct, proactive teaching and more reacting, which can be interpreted as purposeful interaction; teachers worked to build bridges between children's experience and literacy learning. Argues that organizational structures that reduce individualization…

Argues that reading for students today is drastically changed from that learned by students of generations past, primarily as a result of mass media and their effects. Shows how reading in a multimedia world is a complex and subtle enterprise. Illustrates the point with a case study of a five-year-old reader. (HB)

Presents research on reading performance that focused on whole schools. Considers early reading programs in high-poverty, high-performing schools and how these schools allocated resources to develop, implement, and sustain their early reading programs. Identifies practices in specific high-performing, high-poverty schools through case study…

The purpose of this case study is to describe the challenges one coach faced during the initial implementation of a coaching initiative involving 33 teachers in an urban, high-poverty elementary school. Reading coaches are increasingly expected to play a key role in the professional development efforts to improve reading instruction in order to…

The use of the language experience approach to teach readiness and beginning reading and writing skills in preschool programs is explored. The value of this holistic approach is illustrated with a case study of a preschool child with a severe expressive language delay and phonological disorder. (DB)

This article describes the usage of linguistic units and instructional strategies that facilitate word recognition for Latino kindergarten students who are beginning to read in Spanish. This case study was based on coding videotaped reading and language arts instruction of two bilingual kindergarten teachers at the beginning, middle, and end of…

A first-grade teacher used comic books as read-alouds during her implementation of a reading/writing workshop. The students, primarily English-language learners, were able to make use of this medium in order to learn new reading practices. The teacher used the comics to teach multiple aspects of various reading processes such as reading with an…

Concerns have been expressed both in the popular press and in the professional literature regarding skills instruction and the literature-based movement. There is a growing perception that direct instruction in "basic" skills is discouraged within a literature-based philosophy. This booklet challenges this perception as a myth through…

A diagnostic teaching approach for determining the appropriate reading medium (print or braille) of children with visual impairments is presented. Two checklists are offered for recording observations useful in making decisions during two phases (selection of the medium for beginning instruction and ongoing evaluation of the initial decision). Two…