As the phonics/whole-language debate continues, a method called "whole-part-whole" provides a balanced conceptual framework for thinking about and planning skills instruction. It addresses the need for teaching that is grounded in fundamental understandings about whole texts (stories, informational books, and poems), allows for indepth…

Discusses how Montessori principles and practices pertain specifically to the indirect and direct preparation of the child for writing and reading. The general principles are outlined first, followed by a specific discussion relating Montessori's approach to language instruction to current issues in reading disability. (CR)

Presents word building activities to boost elementary students' decoding skills. Building Toward a Secret Word helps K-3 students learn decoding skills by building words from the letters in one secret word. Sort Words, Transfer Sounds has students in grades 1-3 use sounds from words they know to figure out new words that rhyme. (SM)

Describes a multisensory reading program for teaching beginning reading to general education students. The program's main feature is that students learn to read by seeing, hearing, saying, and signing words. Pretesting and posttesting of participating kindergartners indicated that signing greatly enhanced the ability of hearing students to retain…

Notes that multimedia computer programs may provide promising opportunities for the training of initial reading and spelling skills. Examines a recently-developed program's efficacy and impact on the motivation of the users. Finds that the amount of non-task directed behavior of those who had practiced with the computer significantly decreased…

Discusses how the author, a second-/third-grade bilingual teacher, uses miscue analysis to plan reading strategy instruction that meets each individual child's needs by building on each one's strengths as a reader, in both their first and second languages. Appends a description of buddy reading. (SR)

Start Making a Reader Today (SMART) is a book and reading program for children in kindergarten through second grade in 13 Oregon counties. The program aims to create a relaxed and safe environment in which children can practice their skills, one-on-one, with caring adult volunteers. A volunteer tutor recounts her experiences with the program. (SAS)

A successful reading program is a broad-based personalized program that recognizes that reading is a mixture of various skills: phonemic awareness, grapho-phonemic correspondence, word analysis and synthesis, sight-word vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, semantic knowledge, and literary knowledge. Changes in instructional techniques are made based…

Describes how the authors establish the groundwork and the practice of literature circles in their primary classrooms. Describes how they redefine reading to allow all students to think of themselves as readers from the start. Describes the crucial role of talking and listening. Describes what shape literature circles take. Notes that this kind of…

Teacher self-reports of the frequency of currently advocated early literacy practices in Grades 1 through 3 were entered into regression models in an effort to predict 3rd-grade outcomes. Explicit skill instruction was a significant predictor of higher passing rates on a state examination and lower rates of special education referral but was also…

Examines the nature of the relationship between phonemic awareness and reading and spelling development. Focuses particularly on the development of early self-directed writing. Investigates the connection between level of invented spelling used in the self-directed writing and later reading and spelling achievement in grades 1 and 2. (SG)

This study investigated the potential benefits of offering childcare providers professional development to promote preliteracy skills in young children. It was hypothesized that direct instruction to providers, through rigorous training and mentorship, would increase children's opportunities for reading success and thus, enhance their preliteracy…

Early childhood is a time of discovery when learning occurs at every turn. The task that early childhood teachers face is how to teach a class full of students who fall at each end of the learning spectrum (and every place in between). This article describes an easy and effective way to address widely diverse needs among young learners--to empower…

This study investigated the prospective relationships between reading performance and reading habits among Finnish children during the first and second grades of primary school. One hundred and ninety-five children were examined twice during their first primary school year and once during the spring term of Grade 2. The results showed, first, that…

Examines teaching rime analogy or letter recoding reading strategies to prereaders. Results reveal that experience with rime analogy increased letter recoding ability, but teaching in letter recoding did not enhance rime analogy. Children learned to read with a rime analogy or letter recoding reading strategy, and many developed new reading…