This book addresses the crucial and controversial questions that face today's reading scholars, educators, and professionals. Contributors to the book offer their insights and expertise on such issues as the phonics/whole language debate, the state of reading comprehension instruction, the validity of and need for standards and assessment,…

A study examined children's reading difficulties at the early grade levels and explored how federal and state governments are responding to this critical education problem. Sections of the study address: background issues in reading achievement; federal response to improve poor reading achievement; state issues in early reading achievement;…

This position paper considers the complex relation between phonemic awareness and reading. The paper seeks to define phonemic awareness (although there is no single definition), stating that it is typically described as an insight about oral language and in particular about the segmentation of sounds that are used in speech communication. It also…

Syntheses of reading research conducted by the National Research Council (1998) and more recently by the Congressionally-Commissioned National Reading Panel (2000) provide ample evidence of the skills, experience, and knowledge children need to become successful readers in an alphabetic writing system. This research makes clear that children must…

An important goal in every first-grade classroom is to get children reading--but how? This book examines current research on first-grade literacy instruction and shows how it translates into what good teachers really do in the classroom. The book's authors, premier early literacy scholars and educators, describe several studies of effective…

Asserting that early reading success is a strong predictor of academic success in later grades and that the early childhood years (birth through age 8) are critical for literacy development, this issue brief explores actions states can take to develop and support literacy-rich environments for children. Following an introductory summary, the brief…

Developed for the America Reads initiative, this paper presents the LEARNS (Linking Education and America Reads through National Service) Literacy Assessment Profile (LLAP), a student assessment system that is designed to improve providers' ability to deliver high quality literacy programs to students, assess students' literacy understanding, set…

A study examined the opportunities provided by several types of text for beginning readers to learn about three aspects of written English: (1) consistent, common letter-sound patterns; (2) the most frequent words; and (3) the contexts of sentences and texts. Results indicate that texts based on high-frequency words give beginning readers ample…

A study analyzed word recognition instruction in four first-grade classrooms to begin to identify the instructional practices that best foster learning to read words for particular profiles of children. The study was based on the question of which, and how many, word-recognition strategies should be taught to first-grade children. Subjects were…

Much is written and spoken about in terms of whole language versus phonics in early reading instruction in the public schools, but the issue between whole language versus phonics probably pertains to what is needed by individual pupils. There are advantages as well as disadvantages for whole language approaches in reading instruction. Needs differ…

Reports a study of fourteen word lists and proposes a basic list of 240 starter words. (TO)

Presents a sequence for teaching letters based on graphic features; initial and final frequency; the order children learn pronunciation; the ease they can learn to copy, write, and name letters; and phonological differences among sounds letters represent. (TO)

Summarizes two recent research studies dealing with beginning reading behaviors of low socioeconomic level kindergarten children: (1) the effects of race of story book character on story recall and identification of Black and White children; and (2) the effects of different reinforcers and operant level on reading task behavior. (JM)

Presents results of a study of the phonological, morphological, and syntactical oral language patterns of disadvantaged children of New Orleans. Many of the findings are relevant to beginning reading instruction. (TO)

Stresses the importance of careful diagnosis for each child, concluding that by working with such related skills as listening comprehension, spatial relations, and auditory association the overall effectiveness of a reading program for spanish-speaking children may be increased significantly. (RB)