Like Humpty Dumpty after the fall from the wall, language does not work effectively when it is not whole. For many students, the reading problems they begin to experience in the third or fourth grade are caused by the basic skills manner in which beginning reading is taught. Recognizing the limitations of basic skills instruction and the genre of…

Intended for student use at home as a supplement to schoolwork or at school as a phonics text, this workbook presents initial consonant sounds in order of difficulty. The lesson for each sound is four pages in length. The first page consists of an illustration showing familiar objects; students are asked to circle the objects whose names begin…

Intended for student use at home as a supplement to schoolwork or at school as a phonics text, this workbook is a follow-up to "Initial Consonants." The first part of the workbook provides practice for consonants at the end of words. Most letters are given a four-page lesson. On the first page, students are asked to look at pictures, name them,…

Intended for student use at home as a supplement to schoolwork or at school as a phonics text, this workbook presents the most common and regular sounds of vowels. The short vowels are presented first. The lesson for each vowel consists of six pages of exercises. On the first page, the vowel sound is introduced by a cartoon. On the second and…

Intended for student use at home as a supplement to schoolwork or at school as a phonics text, this workbook presents the irregular vowel sounds, including the vowel diphthongs, the r-controlled vowels, and other irregular vowel combinations. Each vowel or combination is presented in a lesson of two to six pages, depending on its perceived…

In 1985, the Global Method of Structural Analysis (GMSA) for teaching reading was introduced to first and second graders in Mexico. Breaking away from the more traditional educational methods, it established a basis for more flexible education and effectively utilized critical thinking skills. The preparation stage (reading readiness) begins in…

The reading instructor working with adult "beginners" needs to have an open mind, be willing to be imaginative and adventurous, and think positively. The basic approach requires the instructor to build beginners' confidence; encourage beginners to participate fully, think for themselves, and learn to learn; involve beginners in planning; and…

A study examined the role of phonics instruction in beginning reading and culminated in a report which has been published as a book entitled "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print." The study centered around the debate over whether phonics instruction promotes or impedes development of the attitudes and abilities required…

The language experience approach is a reading methodoloy that is highly organized, highly structured, and very systematic, but that allows teachers to teach without texts. It is a multiple, variegated set of activities designed to serve one purpose, namely, the instructional use of pupil's own language. As such, there are five interrelated aspects…

The purpose of this document is to provide a step-by-step outline of the language experience approach. It first explains this technique for teaching both words and sentences to beginning readers. Steps are outlined first for teaching words, then for teaching sentences. What to do and what to say is suggested for each step. Teaching words includes…

Reflecting an intensified concern for good educational research on instruction, the papers in this collection demonstrate the growing awareness of and sensitivity to the classroom environment by reading researchers. The 51 articles, selected from those presented at the 1981 meeting of the National Reading Conference, are divided into the following…

A study examined whether the use of a listening station (comprised of books on tapes) would have a positive effect upon the reading interest of first graders. Subjects, 18 first grade children who were randomly selected from three reading groups in a suburban community school, were equally divided into an experimental and a control sample. While…

This paper surveys methods for teaching reading and writing in kindergarten. The paper stresses the importance of accepting a child's own efforts, including invented spelling, and providing an atmosphere that encourages experimentation. Chapter 1 introduces the topic; chapter 2 provides a historical overview. The current state of the art is…

A study examined the relationship between sex differences and the development of reading proficiency, specifically investigating if sex differences related to achievement on measures of silent reading comprehension, sight vocabulary, recognition of vocabulary in context, and use of structural analysis in word recognition taken separately or in…

In light of research confirming the important effects of parents' literacy skills on their children's eventual acquisition of literacy skills, a project was undertaken in the Altoona Area School District in Blair County, Pennsylvania, to provide basic literacy training to a group of Head Start parents who were unable to read and who were not…