Large differences exist among individuals in their ability to process speech sounds within syllables and words, and this ability is crucial for reading and spelling alphabetically beyond a very elementary level. The conception that speech is made up of segments (phonemes) is natural to those who read and spell alphabetically, but arguably: (1)…

The purpose of this paper is to present a direct instructional strategy, which is based upon what is known about effective classroom instruction. After defining direct instruction in reading, research that discriminates effective teachers from less effective teachers is presented. The paper then discusses the five-step, teacher directiveness…

A study required children to tell and to dictate stories that were real and make believe, all about the same basic topic, as part of things people do when they "write a story." A further purpose was to explore the reading knowledge of children who are just beginning to read. Children's reading attempts for these stories were used to…

While vowels are not consistent at the single-letter level, they tend to be more consistent in letter clusters or higher order units. Therefore, a program designed to teach reading without resorting to teaching single-vowel mappings has been developed. The reading program involves teaching single consonants, selected whole words, and higher order…

Argues that kinesthetic activities should be focused in three areas of concern: word recognition, left to right progression, and coordination and visual discrimination. (RB)

This book presents a transitional spelling system, called "Regularized Inglish," which the author proposes as an improved method of reading instruction in English-speaking countries. The system is a phonetic reading approach that eliminates the irregular spellings found in a large number of the most commonly used words in the English…

This study analyzes the quantity and quality of English used orally by 6-year-old Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservation Indian children. Interviews, conducted by American Indian teacher aides following a standardized interview guide, were recorded on cassette tapes. Random samples of the tapes were transcribed and analyzed for total utterances,…

Suggests the extent and manner in which the word characteristics of materials may be separated from and contribute to the strategies children develop for word identification. (RB)

It is important in beginning reading instruction to let the child guess at unknown words, allowing the context to provide feedback. (JH)

Compares the effectiveness of two reading programs for use with low socioeconomic first grade children. (RB)