Designed to provide data establishing the effects of individualization, teacher directiveness, and learner support on reading achievement, this study utilized 118 first-grade classrooms representing 44 schools located in suburban, rural, city, and inner city areas. Measurement of the three dimensions of the classroom environment was achieved…

Despite recent efforts at compensatory education, thousands of children still go through first grade each year without learning to read. More often than not, these are children of the poor. The underlying assumption of this study is that the major attempt at educational compensation for disadvantaged children have failed because of fundamental…

This study examined the effects of two programs which differed in the methods they employed to develop reading readiness. The two methods represented were a language experience approach and a phonics approach. The subjects were children from kindergarten classes in two elementary schools in Flint, Michigan. All subjects were randomly assigned…

The program outlined in this guide was developed on the theory that an important factor in determining a child's success in reading is an enriched background of prereading educational experiences (in the areas of language, motor skills, auditory and visual perception, and self-image) which can be directed at home by parents. In this program, the…

Data from four of the Cooperative First Grade Studies (1964-1965) were reanalyzed for four first grade projects, (Fry, Hayes, Mazurkiewicz, and Tanyzer). These projects were selected because they compared the Initial Teaching Alphabet approach with traditional orthography-basal reader approaches. The focal point of this reanalysis was to study the…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of teacher expectations on first-grade reading achievement. Rankings of reading readiness were collected from 26 classroom teachers before and after falsified reading readiness scores were presented to them. From 536 first graders, 32 high socioeconomic status with low reading readiness status…

Designed to present a program of balanced developmental reading, this book describes basic principles of reading instruction and presents examples of recommended practice for kindergarten through the elementary grades. Chapter one, "About Reading and the Reading Teacher," discusses the nature, goals, and methods of teaching reading; the reading…

These three volumes, a primary Spanish reader, a bilingual play and a teacher's guide in English, are based on a Nahuatl legend about a time when the earth was silent and there was no music. In the legend, the wind god flies up to the sun and captures all the musicians and singers, taking them back to earth so there will be music for all. The…

Collection and evaluation, using both measurement and judgment techniques, of the available evidence relating to the use of i/t/a as a means of beginning reading with children between the ages of 5 and 7 were presented. The specific terms of reference were threefold: (1) to evaluate published research material on i/t/a from both Great Britain and…

A model for educational research and development is presented which, like an agricultural experiment station, would exist to interpret research findings, translating them into usable form. Allocations of funds would be made so that the bulk of the funds would go to the actual utilization levels. A plan for using such educational stations is…

The methods and validity of evaluations of cognitive development, in language and numbers, of children ages three through six, by use of classroom observation inventory lists are discussed. The Evaluation of Cognitive Development--Pre-Reading Skills, an observational instrument (teacher completed), was administered to 134 first grade students in a…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the longitudinal effects of i/t/a and T.O. instruction on students' reading, spelling, and language abilities at the end of third grade. It was primarily concerned with determining whether the effects of early reading instruction, which were not statistically evident at the end of second grade, became…

An exploratory study to discover the relationships between preferred learning modalities and differentiated presentations of reading tasks was conducted in a low socioeconomic, predominantly Puerto Rican public school in New York City, with 106 first-grade children as subjects. Preferred learning modality (auditory, visual, or kinesthetic) was…

A linguistic analysis of five children's books, randomly selected from the "Modern Masters Books for Children" series, described the features of language found in books for beginning readers and demonstrated the value of structural analysis in reading research. Four linguistic measures were applied to each book: 1) the average number of words in a…

A 3-year Harlem project in which 5-year-olds from socially disadvantaged backgrounds were taught an interrelated hierarchy of beginning reading skills utilizing the Edison Responsive Environments instrument (talking typewriter) was reported. The investigation differed from O. K. Moore's approach in three ways: (1) parsimonious use of instructional…