To be an effective communicator, students need to learn how to select the appropriate means of communication and be aware of potential obstacles. The model of communication process can be an effective framework for students to understand many pitfalls of the communication process. The described activity enables students to experience communication…

Reading programs for low-income populations often give disappointing results. Failures may be partly due to a neglect of practice in decoding letters. Visual stimuli are best learned symbol by symbol, with pattern analogies and much practice to unite smaller components and speed up identification. The prerequisite for comprehending volumes of text…

This bestselling book provides indispensable tools and strategies for explicit, systematic phonics instruction in K-3. Teachers learn effective ways to build students' decoding skills by teaching letter-sound relationships, blending, word building, multisyllabic decoding, fluency, and more. The volume is packed with engaging classroom activities,…

Embracing the dynamic nature of English language can help students learn more about all forms of English. To fully engage students, teachers should not adhere to an anachronistic and static view of English. Instead, they must acknowledge, accept, and even use different language forms within the classroom to make that classroom dynamic, inclusive,…

One of the biggest challenges teachers face in today's classrooms is instructing students who are non-native English speakers. Research supports using drama and movement to enhance the literacy development of English language learners. Besides being "fun" learning experiences for children, drama and movement have proven to assist with developing…

We examined the importance of children's classroom activity, defined as task-focused versus task-avoidance behavior, on different literacy outcomes in an orthographically consistent language. Greek children (n=95) were tested in kindergarten, grade 1, and grade 2 on measures of general cognitive ability, phonological awareness, RAN, and short-term…

Five reproducible puzzles are presented which test students' skills in math, visual discrimination, and decoding. (MT)

Intended for teachers of grades K-2, this book is a practical resource manual designed to provide step-by-step suggestions for assessing and instructing students' phonics skills and strategies. It presents phonological awareness as a foundation and preparation for phonics instruction and integrates the two so they become reciprocal. In addition,…

Considers how good phonics instruction should encourage children to recognize rimes and to identify an unfamiliar word by blending its onset with the rime that follows. Discusses seven conclusions/implications for phonics software derived from research into phonics instruction. (SG)

Describes the "Magic E," a game designed for small groups to practice decoding skills. (MM)

This book is written for preservice and inservice teachers to explain basic theory of modern traditional word analysis programs and to supply suggestions and guidelines for classwide and small-group instruction in the various components of word analysis. Chapter 1 deals with ways of utilizing context clues to help children develop their…

Describes letterbox lessons in which children learn the alphabetic code, spelling words by placing letters in boxes that show the number of phonemes in words, and later reading what they have spelled. Discusses materials, how to teach a letterbox lesson, and effectiveness of these lessons. (SR)

Explores the use of drama as a teaching tool to promote students' interest in literacy and to support every aspect of literacy development. Describes how drama can help develop affect, emergent literacy, decoding knowledge, fluency, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic knowledge, discourse knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge. Discusses also using…

Discusses the role of word recognition in reading comprehension. Defines seven strategies for word recognition--configuration, dictionary analysis, syllabication, structural analysis, sight words, context clues, and phonetic analysis--and provides activities for teaching each. (JPB)

This book provides the tools classroom teachers need to determine which children lack the phonological awareness skills needed to become successful readers as well as to pinpoint deficiencies and address various needs. The book's unique features include the following: a comprehensive assessment that measures children's phonological awareness…