Reviews the literature concerning oral reading fluency and offers six hypotheses about how beginning readers develop oral fluency and about strategies to help those who do not. (FL)

Laments the past misuse and misunderstanding of phonics. Introduces the term "new phonics" to describe the sophisticated, research-based phonics being used in the basal reading scheme, "Language in Action." (JL)

Among conclusions presented by a review of research on modality preference as a method for differentiating beginning reading instruction are that differentiating instruction according to modality preference apparently did not facilitate learning to read. (Author)

Reviews "Happily Ever After," a reading readiness program that is designed to help those children who lack many of the concepts and abilities assumed by most readiness programs. (FL)

Reports on several easy-to-read books for beginning readers and laments the dearth of such materials. (FL)

Reports the results of pilot testing the use of a scale of cognitive clarity for beginning readers based on the writings of John Downing. (AEA)

A method for introducing hearing impaired preschoolers to a core basal reading series is described. Steps begin with having students react to pictures of their own experiences and express the plots of stories in language. (CL)

Examines whether empirical research in beginning reading instruction supports the major tenets of the psycholinguistic approach to beginning reading. (Author/MP)

Personalized account of the interactions among a retired teacher of reading, her daughter, and grandson, in regard to the grandson's reading development. (SS)

A phonics advocate maintains that claims for results with the method called "assisted reading" or sentence reading are higher than can be expected. (MKM)

Using first- and second-grade students, this study examined the use of sentence contexts for word identification by beginning readers. (HOD)

This article describes a program in which beginning readers dictate stories to accompany wordless picture books. The stories are turned into classroom "published books" which are used to teach reading and develop student confidence. Step-by-step directions and a brief list of wordless picture books are provided. (CR)

Discusses an integrated theory of literacy development with synchrony between beginning stages of reading and spelling. Explores the reasons why beginning readers read disfluently, fingerpoint, and read aloud. Discusses orthographic correlates to these behaviors. Suggests that fluent reading must wait for a certain power in word knowledge.…

Two groups of grade school children were tested for their ability to use orthographic rimes as functional units of reading by reading pseudowords. The results suggest that the size of the orthographic rime frequency effect reflects the operation of two factors: vocabulary size and grapheme-phoneme conversion skill. (SW)

Examines relationships between levels of phonological awareness and early reading ability. Finds significant correlations between metaphonological abilities and reading for kindergarteners but weak or nonexistent correlations in the tasks involving sensitivity to phonological similarities for first graders. Notes that all children who developed…