THE FIRST YEAR OF A 3-YEAR PROJECT ENTITLED "COMPARING READING APPROACHES IN FIRST GRADE TEACHING WITH DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN" (CRAFT) IS REPORTED. CRAFT COMPARES A SKILLS-CENTERED APPROACH WITH A LANGUAGE-EXPERIENCE APPROACH TO TEACHING READING. VARIATIONS OF THE SKILLS-CENTERED APPROACH ARE THE BASAL READER METHOD AND THE PHONOVISUAL…

UNTIL SUBSTANTIAL MASTERY HAS BEEN ACHIEVED BY THE SLOWER READERS, THE SUB-SKILLS TO LEARNING THE MECHANICS OF READING SHOULD BE MADE THE OBJECTIVES OF INSTRUCTION. FOCUSING ON WORDS, BLENDING, AND HANDLING IRREGULARS ARE THREE OF THE SUB-SKILLS NEEDED. TO TEACH THE CHILD TO FOCUS ON WORDS, THE TEACHER INTRODUCES VERBAL RHYMING AND ALLITERATION…

THE VIEW THAT READING IS A ROTE, AUTOMATIC, CONDITIONED, NONMEANINGFUL PROCESS WHICH PRECEDES (THUS IS SEPARABLE FROM) COMPREHENSION IS CORROBORATED IN A TWO-PART INVESTIGATION. IN PART I, EVIDENCE IS PRESENTED TO SUPPORT THE POSITION THAT READING IS A NONMEANINGFUL PROCESS. IN PART II, A STUDY OF THE EFFICACY OF AN AUDITORY APPROACH TO…

A PILOT EXPERIMENT CONDUCTED TO TEST THE EFFECT OF A SPECIALLY DEVISED PHONIC APPROACH TO EARLY READING IS DESCRIBED. THE PHONIC METHOD USED ACHIEVED SOUND-SYMBOL REGULARITY AND HAD THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS--(1) CONSONANT GRAPHEMES EACH REPRESENTED ONLY ONE SOUND AND WERE PRINTED USING NEARLY STANDARD ALPHABETIC SYMBOLS. (2) EACH VOWEL…

A CONFERENCE WAS HELD TO IMPROVE AND EXPAND A FUSED CURRICULUM IN BEGINNING READING. THE CURRICULUM HAD BEEN DEVELOPED AND TENTATIVELY EVALUATED AS PART OF "PROJECT LITERACY," A BASIC RESEARCH AND CURRICULUM-DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IN AREAS OF EDUCATION RELEVANT TO THE ACQUISITION OF LITERACY SKILLS. THE FOCUS OF THE CURRICULUM WAS ON A…

BASAL READER SYSTEMS FOR BEGINNERS WERE ANALYZED TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF SPECIFIC SYSTEM FEATURES ON THE READING ACHIEVEMENT OF FIRST-GRADE CHILDREN OF DIFFERENT SEX AND LEVELS OF INTELLIGENCE. THE PROJECT COVERED THE FOLLOWING SYSTEMS--(1) THE LIPPINCOTT "BASIC READING" SERIES, (2) THE "EARLY-TO-READ…

A rationale and procedures for teaching limited and non-English speaking children to read and write English by using the language experience approach are presented in this paper. The paper suggests that the language experience approach combined with a strong program in oral English development will provide such children with the opportunity to…

This paper offers seven practical suggestions to teachers who are teaching phonics to hard-to-teach children (the learning disabled, the educable mentally retarded, slow learners, and the culturally disadvantaged) and who are not experiencing the success they desire. The suggestions are made under the following topics: (1) cumulative learning and…

Noting that the idea of reading as a natural language communication process has been well established by research, this paper identifies learning strategies and suggests teaching methods for developing the young child's awareness of the communication nature of reading. The paper concludes that learning strategies based on imitation, drawing, and…

A variety of factors related to beginning reading in Sweden are considered in this paper. Among the topics discussed are the following: age of school entrance and beginning reading, factors related to school maturity and reading readiness, the importance of appropriate teaching techniques in the critical beginning stages of reading instruction,…

A study originally involving 56 children from four schools was undertaken to observe the development of children's oral language and concepts of print during the kindergarten year using the Record of Oral Language (ROL) and the Concepts about Print (Sand) tests. In addition, the Sand test was administered early in the first grade to the available…

To support young children in bringing all of their resources to bear on constructing meaning from print, teachers must be aware of how children learn, must make use of a variety of learning materials, and must carefully prepare the contextual setting in which children move into reading. Teachers should focus on planning a classroom reading…

A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of six approaches to beginning reading instruction (basal, linguistic, phonic, programed reading, i/t/a, and unifon) in schools serving educationally disadvantaged children and to determine the effectiveness of lay aides in project classrooms. Subjects were approximately 4,000 pupils in primary…

The Oakland County, Michigan, first-grade study of the effectiveness of three approaches to beginning reading was extended to the second and third grades to investigate differences in their effects on reading and related language development. Each of 11 research teams chose three classrooms which used either the Initial Teaching Alphabet approach…

Six children from one first-grade classroom were videotaped 18 times over a seven-month period, while reading aloud complete stories. Analysis of the first 50 miscues and the last 50 miscues in both new and familiar materials read by the children yielded profiles of each child's oral reading strategies. The major findings indicated that these six…