Proposes a Gestalt version of the word family approach to phonics instruction as a way of reducing the number of phonetic units a child must learn to gain total phonetic control of the English language. (TO)

Analyzes a shift in the view of the reading process and suggests a modified view of the learning-to-read process as a constructive process. (MKM)

Reviews the literature in the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) on models describing the reading process. (RB)

1,000 words were rated for imagery by adults. 63 first graders and kindergarteners were then taught to read 756 of these words. Results showed that this imagery rating was significantly related to the subjects' ability to read (learn) the words. The word list with imagery ratings is presented. (RC)

First and second graders were taught to recognize a set of written words either more accurately or more rapidly. Both before and after word training, they named pictures printed with and without these words as distractors. Of interest was whether training would enhance or diminish the interference created by these words in the picture naming task.…

Explores the characteristics and implications of the "new sentence method" of learning to read. (JM)

Finds no relationship between young children's ability to attend to text and to nominate a greater number of purposes for learning to read. (FL)

This position paper on teaching children to read explains with several examples exactly what "quagmires" are and how they hamper children as they learn the elements of reading basics. The paper takes a multidisciplinary approach to attacking stumbling blocks to learning most often experienced by child learners. To explain the concept of quagmire,…

Contends that Jean Piaget's theories may be helpful in three areas of reading instruction: (1) when reading instruction should begin and how it should proceed, (2) the effect of the mature reader's cognitive development on comprehension, and (3) how the theories can help to refine reading theory. (FL)

Suggests that reading theorists who neglect to treat context frequently produce distorted views of how reading occurs. (MKM)

Discusses the intertextuality and metafiction of children's literature for beginning readers; specifically Allan Ahlberg's "Ten in a Bed." (MG)

Investigates the kind of print-related knowledge that emergent readers must possess to learn to point to the words of a text as they recite it from memory (fingerpoint-reading) and to remember information about the print from this activity. Reveals that different types of print knowledge facilitate different aspects of fingerpoint-reading. (SR)

Emerging literacy is a developmental process which is closely tied to the child's developing cognitive processes. The interaction of memory and emerging literacy can be discussed in the context of Marie Clay's Reading Recovery model. Memory types, encoding and retrieval, strategy use, and executive control/expectancies are components of cognitive…

Two experiments were conducted in order to determine whether children are able to make analogies in learning to read. In the first experiment, 24 children from a primary school were taught three types of word pairs--only one pair of which was analogies--and then tested. Results showed not only that children are aware that consistency of spelling…