Contrasts the relative impact of the behaviorist and cognitive views of learning and language on beginning reading curricula and the teaching of comprehension skills. Points out that current measures of reading comprehension ignore the concept of maturity in reading. Includes a pro-reaction and a con-reaction paper. Bibliography. (WB)

A first grade teacher relates various techniques, based on her knowledge of linguistics, which she uses to teach reading and language awareness; illustrated. (RD)

Lists suggestions for implementing a reading-for-meaning instructional approach that focuses on the development and comprehension of language. (FL)

Examines children's attraction to rhythm and rhyme of nursery rhymes and how these factors affect literacy. Discusses the connection between rhyme and reading and spelling acquisition. (HTH)

Reviews research showing that children beginning to read are often confused by the task. Suggests that this confusion is the result of factors both in the home and at school and calls for research that would identify those factors. (FL)

Reveals that only three structures--confrontation, episodic, and plotless--accounted for 87 percent of the story selections in six basal reader series. (FL)