The use of words in isolation, words with pictures, and words in sentence context in teaching word recognition to beginning readers was studied in a sample of 54 boys and 54 girls. These 108 pupils were randomly assigned to the three treatment groups; each child was individually taught the target words. Learning was assessed on five dependent…

A questionnaire was administered to 50 first-grade teachers who reported strategies used in teaching reading to 1,145 Mexican-American, Black, and Anglo children in three school districts in Texas. Seven null hypotheses were tested. It was concluded that (1) reading instruction is delayed with Mexican-American children; (2) on the average, 68% of…

This study examined the effects of two programs which differed in the methods they employed to develop reading readiness. The two methods represented were a language experience approach and a phonics approach. The subjects were children from kindergarten classes in two elementary schools in Flint, Michigan. All subjects were randomly assigned…

This study investigated developmental trends of certain oral-reading skills for first-, second-, and third-grade children instructed under the Distar Reading Program and the Holt Basic Reading System. The oral-reading skills studied were the overall speed and the accuracy of reading words spelled regularly and irregularly. Ten subjects comprised…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a meaning-emphasis or a code-emphasis method of teaching beginning reading to first-grade children was most efficacious. The following procedures were employed: establishment of a workable definition of the reading process, development of an experimental design in which the control of natural…

The purpose of this study was to obtain background information regarding the curriculum content of elementary reading methods courses for the development of a classification system of that content. This information was compiled from three separate sources: textbooks designated for use in an elementary reading methods course, opinions and…

Second-grade pupils using the Ginn "Reading 360" or the McGraw-Hill "Programmed Reading" were compared in their reading and retelling of the story "King Alfred and the Cakes." Analysis, using the Reading Miscue Inventory, of the performance of 20 selected pupils indicated that those taught with "Programmed…

The purpose of this study was to determine and to interpret the effect of two differing approaches to reading instruction on the self-social concepts of first grade children. The concepts analyzed were self-esteem; social interest; individuation; complexity; realism; identifications with mother, father, teacher, and friend; and preferences for…

A kindergarten pre-reading program was designed based upon Piagetian and Montessorian theory. During the pilot study, pre-reading experiences, materials and games were created to encourage individual diagnosis and specific pre-reading skills assessment. The following year the investigator conducted a descriptive study of the program's…

This study describes and tests the aptitude treatment interaction (ATI) approach to reading. The rationale which forms the basis of ATI--pairing student to method--evolved from the works of Piaget and other psychologists whose studies focus on the general, and cognitive, development of children. From these studies, it was determined that…

The applicability of phonics generalizations, particularly the rule "When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking and the second one is silent," is examined in this paper. The first section reports on a study of the applicability of the two vowel rule to words in first- and second-grade basal readers and on a core vocabulary list; the…

The effects of a language-based reading approach on the reading strategies of first grade children were examined in a study involving a total of 40 children. Half of the students were placed in an experimental group that was exposed to the language-based reading approach, and half were placed in a control group that was taught to read by a…

This study compared 5 groups (45 each) of disadvantaged first grade children learning to read 16 basic sight vocabulary words. The subjects were enrolled in 1 of 16 classrooms on three campuses of a school district in Texas located on the southern border between the United States and Mexico. Furthermore, all spoke Spanish as their first language.…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether lower-class students would exhibit greater retention of reading vocabulary with a language experience approach to reading than with a basal text approach. Sixty low socioeconomic level students from the seven first grades of one elementary school in a small South Carolina town were randomly…

Children who speak the black dialect usually are low classroom achievers. Teachers must understand differences between Black English (BE) and the reading text. This paper shows how black children experience difficulties with reading programs. Three basal reading series are analyzed. Initial Teaching Alphabet - phonics; Scientific Research…