One of the greatest advantages of teaching first graders to read and write using a whole literacy approach is the flexibility the method provides for meeting the needs of each individual learner. Children use their dictated language as the text and work within small groups. Children can join any group working at an appropriate level or work…

Intended to provide the Portland Public Schools Curriculum Department documentation of the second-year kindergarten implementation and to provide kindergarten teachers data to support the development of a readiness continuum and placement criteria, this report furnishes a detailed explanation and survey of the Writing to Read program, an…

Intended to provide children with pleasurable reading experiences by letting them feel successful in their early reading attempts, the program described in this booklet employs reading comprehension techniques that have been found effective and focuses on helping to prevent comprehension problems before they arise. The program was designed to be…

This guide explains how to plan, develop, and conduct a writing workshop for literacy volunteers who will be working with beginning readers. The workshop has been developed to introduce literacy volunteers to the idea of writing original supplementary reading materials, give them experience in writing with a controlled vocabulary and strict…

Investigating how good and poor readers process words, a study examined the spelling and reading processes of 80 middle-class first grade students from three schools in Houston, Texas, 40 who were receiving whole word instruction, and 40 receiving phonics instruction. Based on scores from the Gates-McGinitie Reading Test, Basic R (administered in…

This handbook for librarians and adult basic education (ABE) teachers examines existing and potential library-literacy connections. Chapter I discusses methods and criteria for selecting and evaluating books for new readers. Both readability levels and the quality of books are considered. The second chapter examines the library's general…

Intended to encourage parents to help their children acquire early reading skills at home, this paper provides a rationale and recommendations for early reading instruction. Following an introduction, the sections of the paper discuss (1) the historical background of beginning reading, (2) the benefits of early reading, (3) early reading case…

The readings in this collection were prepared to accompany a report of a series of experiments conducted to determine what information readers, both skilled adults and children beginning to read, use when they read to understand a story. Titles of the readings are are (1) "Oral Reading: Does It Reflect Decoding or Comprehension?" (2)…

The study investigated the effectiveness of an ecological inventory and screen writing for the acquisition of reading words for secondary-aged moderately mentally handicapped students. The study utilized an ecological inventory model which is an adult-referenced curriculum based on adult tasks and local resources and environments, rather than on…

Intended for reading teachers, this book of articles about reading and writing was written by teachers who intended to ask new questions about reading instruction. It bases its practice on a teaching philosophy in which teachers expect their students to work together, not segregated into proficiency groups. The first section contains articles…

A study of the ways adults socialize children into particular patterns of literacy by helping them develop the literary and social knowledge necessary for using and understanding print is described in this monograph. Specifically, the monograph focuses on adults and children observed over a period of 18 months at a preschool, and provides insights…

The Auditory Discrimination in Depth (ADD) program, an oral-motor approach to beginning reading instruction, causes students to become aware of the oral-facial characteristics of phonemes by calling conscious attention to the motor characteristics of each sound. This aspect of phoneme production is connected to visual and auditory cues to provide…

Two contrasting kindergarten reading programs (book-focused and letter-focused) were chosen for a study that evaluated the ability of the Early Reading Test to probe children's knowledge of stories as well as letters, sounds, and words. The test also evaluated the kinds of strategies children use to attempt reading tasks and, through interview…

Part of the first book series of "Ch'al," the word workbook written in the Navajo language provides supplementary activities to the reading program. Illustrations are in reference to the 11 sound/symbol associations in the Navajo language introduced in the reader-workbook. Illustrated objects are captioned in the Navajo language using…

The student's reader-workbook accompanies the teacher's guide to "Nashdoi." Organized in the same format as the "Ch'al" and "Chaa" books, "Nashdoi" builds on the vocabulary introduced in those first two readers in the series. The reader-workbook introduces the consonant "x," 14 new vowel environments, 6 new diphthong environments, and 102 new…