This review examined studies that had addressed opinions of pre-service teachers (PSTs) concerning their preparedness for teaching early reading skills to all students, the extent of their content knowledge, and their attitudes towards code-based and/or meaning-based approaches to early reading. From the limited amount of research available, it…

Reviews research findings that suggest the importance of systematic phonics instruction in beginning reading. Cites arguments against phonics teaching and indicates that they appear unsupportable since they are incompatible with research findings and since they make unwarrantedly negative accusations about the kind of teaching that must be used in…

Word boxes and word sorts are two word study phonics approaches that involve teaching phonemic awareness, making letter-sound associations, and teaching spelling through the use of well-established behavioral principles. The current study examines the effectiveness of word boxes and word sorts. Findings revealed that word boxes and word sort…

This article systematically reviews research on the achievement outcomes of four types of approaches to improving the reading success of children in the elementary grades: reading curricula, instructional technology, instructional process programs, and combinations of curricula and instructional process. Study inclusion criteria included use of…

Reviews two orientations, skill orientation and ideational orientation, of teaching practices in beginning reading. Describes in detail child behaviors linked with teaching tactics for each of these modes of instruction. (Author/SS)

Emphasizes the need for teachers to perceive the process of reading as a process of predictions so that teaching techniques emphasizing reading comprehension will be used. (MKM)

Reviews 42 studies of computer-assisted instruction published from 1990 to the present, comprising 75 experimental comparisons. The corrected effect size estimate was 0.19. Two variables, effect size at the time of pretesting and language of instruction, accounted for 61% of the variability in effect sizes. Advises caution in interpreting results…

Describes the current situation in phonics instruction, citing recent studies supporting its effectiveness. (FL)

Describes the three methods of teaching reading commonly used in Italy: the natural method, the phonic syllabic method, and the global method. (FL)

Discusses the characteristics of predictable books and ways to use them with first grade students. Offers a bibliography of such books. (FL)

Reviews literature that describes the success of Japanese children in learning to read Japanese; concludes that Japanese children learn their phonemic Kana script very quickly, possibly because they work with the syllable as a unit, but that the Kanji (Chinese characters) in the Japanese text present difficulties for learners. (GT)

Study uses predictable books to compare three reading treatments reflecting different components of a whole-to-part instructional model. In three first-grade classrooms, beginning readers working with isolated words in a modified word bank activity learned more words than when they worked with sentence strips. Discusses implications for the use of…

Examines the history of preschool reading instruction, what researchers recommend, and what is actually happening in preschools, then asks whether reading should be taught to young children. (FL)

Reviews research suggesting that there is no one method that is best for teaching sight words to every child. (FL)

Examines arguments favoring direct teaching of reading vocabulary and those favoring extensive reading to develop vocabulary, concluding that direct vocabulary instruction is still appropriate. (HTH)