Comparison of the individual reading strategies of 26 severely impaired developmental dyslexics and 26 nonhandicapped readers found a distribution of skills and strategies over a continuum in both groups. Dyslexic students were specifically impaired in phonological processing, and half of them employed more whole-word oriented strategies than the…

Presents scenarios from a kindergarten classroom in which dramatization is used extensively in conjunction with nonfiction books. Shows how the children acted out topics that ranged from the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving to the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., showing that they were able to develop rich representations of nonfiction materials.…

Concludes children benefit from teacher training in integrating environmental print into the curriculum; logos selected for classroom use should come from children's immediate environment; instruction should include experiences with manuscript forms of the logos; and children who are encouraged to bring to class examples of environmental print…

Describes a technique for helping children learn the names of the letters of the alphabet. In the Alphabet Mnemonic System, each alphabet letter is assigned a phrase that will cue the learner to recall the name of the letter. A table is provided of the mnemonic alphabet cues. (CR)

Describes letterbox lessons in which children learn the alphabetic code, spelling words by placing letters in boxes that show the number of phonemes in words, and later reading what they have spelled. Discusses materials, how to teach a letterbox lesson, and effectiveness of these lessons. (SR)

Argues that deep coding skills must and can be introduced, taught, practiced, and reinforced within contexts meaningful to students. Shows how teachers can provide these meaningful educational contexts within which decoding strategies make sense to emerging readers. (SR)

The first of two studies examined the family literacy experiences of 10 young children in Britain. The second study traced the literacy progress of 66 first-year students, together with teachers' predictions and subsequent interventions. Findings indicated teachers' informal judgements did identify students with later problems but there was wide…

This brief article describes "Move, Touch, Read", a set of adaptations of commercial books to develop early Braille literacy prerequisites in young children and to systematize the transition from adapted to unadapted books. (DB)

Examines and refutes six myths about beginning and developing reading instruction. Discusses importance of teaching phonological awareness and decoding in beginning reading and of teaching syllable patterns and morpheme patterns from Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin roots and affixes in developing reading. (Author/JDM)

Offers a framework for improving instructional tools in beginning reading with emphasis on their importance for children with diverse learning needs. Bases rationale on current practices and challenges of increasing diversity in classrooms. Identifies critical dimension or big ideas of beginning reading and relates it to curriculum design…

Investigated metalinguistic awareness in learning to read Spanish, focusing on print awareness, phonological awareness, decoding, and reading comprehension. Studies of 136 preliterate Spanish children indicated a relationship between phonological awareness and reading and revealed the importance of syllabic awareness in developing other levels of…

Examines whether letter-name knowledge facilitates learning spellings in which the names of one or more letters can be heard in the pronunciation of the words. Results suggest preschool Portuguese children who know the names of the letters can learn to read by processing letter-sound relations in words; however, children may not use this mechanism…

Describes what CD-ROM talking books are and how they foster young children's literacy development. Notes teachers' questions and concerns about CD-ROM talking books, and why teachers should consider using them. Offers 12 suggestions for activities with talking books, organized at different interaction levels: initial level, fluency and…

Disagrees with an earlier article in this journal about the dispute among reading-instruction specialists as to how phonics is best taught. Argues for direct and systematic phonics instruction. Presents a response to Groff, agreeing that children need explicit phonics instruction but arguing that an instructional approach that acknowledges the…

Describes an engaging activity for primary-grade students that encourages students to talk, read, write, and share events that are important in their lives by writing a daily news sheet. Describes the daily news process, which encourages students to share during whole-group community time and to work independently later. (SR)