This volume, a revision of "Phonics and the Teaching of Reading," is designed to offer practical help to teachers, especially in the area of phonics. Attention is given to the influence that linguistics has had on reading over the last decade and to those features of linguistics that have affected phonics methodology and instructional materials.…

This book is concerned with the skill of learning to read and factors primarily related to teaching the beginning reading skills. The contents include: "Rationale," which discusses abilities related to reading, reading as a different medium, decoding coming before reading, decoding as separate from reading, hypotheses for decoding, and a…

Offers specific examples of instructional goals and their corresponding teaching techniques used in "The Electric Company" that do not substantiate the definition of reading as communication between author and reader, the effective reader being one who brings meaning to the printed word. (TO)

Some of the basic sight word lists which are being used or which might be extensively implemented in the future are described in this paper. The basic criterion used to define a good sight word list is that it contains words which appear with high frequency in children's materials at the beginning reading levels as well as at higher levels. In…

This paper analyzes evidence related to the effectiveness of vowel generalization from two viewpoints: the nature of letter-sound and sound-letter relationships as derived from Dewey, Hanna, and Hillerich, and the nature of these relationships as derived from results of teaching vowel generalizations to children. From the evidence and the research…

This paper describes the types of stories in the second year of the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) Reading Program and contains specifications for each type of story. The stories are described in terms of their characters and plot content, procedures for selecting new-word content, and word-usage and story-length specifications. This…

A rule-based model is proposed of how children learn to decode as they gain experience in reading. The model is based on data gathered from pronunciation errors of words presented in isolation. An analysis of the errors reveals that different kinds of errors are made by children at different ability levels. Less able readers make errors that…

Two sources of information are involved in reading; the visual information picked up by the eyes from the printed page and the nonvisual information, or prior knowledge, that the reader possesses. An overreliance on visual information leads to an overloading of the cognitive process involved in reading and loss in comprehension. Overreliance on…

Reading instruction should be modified to make it compatible with students' perceptual skills. Assessing the adequacy of a student's perception is pertinent to planning his reading instructional program--not because the teacher can then teach to a preferred modality but, rather, because it can help the teacher determine whether the student has…

The Wisconsin Prototypic System of Reading Skill Development is described. The sequential arrangement of behavioral objectives in the word attack component is discussed. Basic linguistic concepts underlying the specification of these behavioral objectives are also considered. (Author)

In teaching reading, teachers should understand the three categories of language information which all readers draw upon in the processing of information. These three categories are (1) grapho-phonic, the information from the writing system and from the phonological system of oral language; (2) syntactic information, the information from…

Suggestions for various activities, games, and materials for teaching phonics are presented in this handbook for teachers and teachers in training. The chapters and materials covered include: (1) "Why Phonics," which presents the rationale for teaching phonics; (2) "A Suggested Order for Teaching Phonics," which discusses the order of difficulty…

The effectiveness of prephonic training between kindergarten and first grade levels as a tool for acquiring reading skills was explored throughout the public school system in the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts. A sample population of 260 kindergartners was identified as having potential learning difficulties by the results shown on the…

The purposes of this study were to determine the effects of Minicourse 18 on the development of 27 specific teacher behaviors related to teaching reading decoding skills by a group of inservice and preservice teachers of primary grade children, and to determine the effects of the teacher training upon pupil performance in reading. Minicourse 18…

A common pitfall is the assumption that the teaching of reading in the content areas is an esoteric mystery to be solved only by the reading specialist. The teacher of a content area should guide his students in the application of basic skills and study methods to the materials used. A second pitfall is the assumption, often made by the unskilled…