This article explores Shared Reading as an instructional approach that mimics home reading experiences in a group setting for young children. The article includes information about how to use enlarged text as the teacher provides experiences with books that first focus on the meaning and enjoyment of the story and then shifts to how print works…

The federal Reading First grant project began with the 2003-2004 school year. Since then, many schools have entered the program to take on the challenge of improving their reading test scores. The Reading First model of instruction has been used to help promote school improvement efforts throughout the United States, so that students may reach the…

Reading Recovery (RR) is a short-term early intervention designed to help the lowest-achieving readers in first grade reach average levels of classroom performance in literacy. Students identified to receive Reading Recovery meet individually with a specially trained Reading Recovery (RR) teacher every school day for 30-minute lessons over a…

Success in early literacy activities is associated with improved educational outcomes, including reduced dropout risk, in-grade retention, and special education referrals. When considering programs that will work for a particular school and context; cost-effectiveness analysis may provide useful information for decision makers. The study…

This study considers the degree to which two quantitative indices--Lexiles and Coh-Metrix--discriminate across levels of difficulty and types of beginning reading texts. The database consisted of 444 texts, representing seven text types that are part of reading/language arts instruction. These text types were distributed across seven levels of…

Practitioners are often faced with the national legislation's influence at the school-based curricular level. In the United States, the federal government No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandates reading instruction at the early primary grade levels. The position of "literacy coach" was created to support this curriculum change by…

NCLB and Reading First are negotiated in implementing beginning reading instruction. The article describes and analyzes how two critical conditions for creating opportunity--access to qualified teachers and rigorous academic curriculum--are met by examining the enactment and adaptation of a prescriptive core reading program disproportionately…

The "Houghton Mifflin Reading"[c] system is a reading program for instruction in grades K-6. It uses Big Books (authentic literature), anthologies, Read Alouds, and audio compact discs to provide step-by-step instruction in reading. According to the developer's website, "Houghton Mifflin Reading"[c] was developed based on the…

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of two theoretically different reading programs on the reading outcomes of first-grade students (N = 107). Two elementary schools were chosen for participation based on the first-grade reading program currently being implemented in the schools. One school used the "Horizons Fast Track…

In an age of restrictive standards and accountability measures, teachers often find themselves in a position where they have to struggle to keep play with language and literature as a focus of their early literacy instruction, as "scientifically based" reading programs, phonics, or scripted instruction take center stage. In order to counter this…

Although the importance of intervening to assist young struggling readers is widely accepted and many interventions have been developed to meet this need, research has not yet established that there is an effective and low-cost option for schools. Reviews of research into beginning reading provide guidance about what needs to be included in an…

Reading First, the largest and most ambitious beginning reading initiative funded by the United States Department of Education, is entering its sixth and final year in Georgia. The author currently serves as a coordinator for the project as well as serve as a Regional Consultant to six schools near my home in South Georgia. She is one of fourteen…

What beginning reading programs have been proven to help students in grades K-1 to succeed? To find out, this review summarizes evidence on four types of programs designed to improve beginning reading achievement: (1) Reading Curricula (Curr), such as "Open Court Reading," "Reading Street," and other standard and alternative textbooks; (2)…

We evaluated the validity of DIBELS ("Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills") ORF ("Oral Reading Fluency") for predicting performance on the "Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test" (FCAT-SSS) and "Stanford Achievement Test" (SAT-10) reading comprehension measures. The usefulness of previously…

Discusses 11 documents processed into the ERIC system that shed light on the selection of a beginning reading program. (DD)