Draws on selected ERIC resources to suggest dominant features of two approaches to beginning reading: systematic phonics and whole language learning. (HOD)

Describes activities involved in producing pop-up books that allow children to create meaning, thus improving their understanding of literacy.

Describes Dr. John Henry Martin's theory of how children can learn to write phonetically before learning to read and how this theory developed into a computer-based teaching system called "Writing to Read." A program evaluation by Martin and IBM is discussed, and a source is given for further information. (MBR)

Skilled and less skilled beginning readers (n=54) were taught to read and define 10 printed pseudowords. Post-tests revealed that experimentals retaining spellings in memory as orthographic images remembered spellings better than controls who received comparable training without the memory component. (PN)

Describes and evaluates "Breakthrough to Literacy," a beginning reading scheme based on the language experience approach and launched in Saskatoon, Canada schools in 1974. (RB)

Indicates that the teaching of rhyming words is the most efficient initial presentation of consonant-vowel-consonant words for beginning readers. (RB)

Children probably begin to read from the moment they become aware of print, and the roots of reading are discernable whenever children strive to make sense of print. (JH)

Blending means smoothing together subword segments to try to identify a spoken word. Research suggests that beginning readers need to blend to combine the phonemes they "sound out" into a recognizable approximation of a known word. Popular wisdom presumes blending is easiest when the segments of words are whispered and when syllables are…

The voice of the government via the Reading Excellence Act gives the message that direct systematic intense phonics instruction will solve the reading problem, end debate, lead to student success in life beyond school, and provide teachers with the prestige of successful reading instruction. This paper takes a close look at systematic direct…

These three issues of a newsletter offer diverse kinds of information deemed to be of interest to Association for Direct Instruction (ADI) members--stories of successful implementations in different settings, write-ups of ADI awards, tips on "how to" deliver direct instruction (DI) more effectively, topical articles focused on particular…

This report considers six schools in two urban districts that made deliberate commitments to improve student performance in early language and literacy--each story is different, yet they all share an important insight: that a school and a model provider can work together to help every child learn to read. As the stories in the report demonstrate,…

The 48 phonemic awareness activities in this book can be used to supplement and enhance any reading program. Most of the activities in the book can be used for instructional purposes; however, the games and activity pages are intended for practice and review, not for the initial introduction or instruction of skills. After a discussion of what…

Recent research confirms that children learn to read best by using a balanced literacy program incorporating a combination of explicit phonics, whole language, and good literature. Long before children are able to engage in reading themselves, they must feel that reading is something they want to do. Comfortable and early familiarity with letters…

This paper summarizes the details of a workshop which sought to bring together researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and university educators to consider the current state of knowledge about emergent and early literacy learning, with the overarching question: what additional knowledge is needed about early literacy learning? Six specific topic…

This paper explains the creation and validation of the Narrative Comprehension of Picture Books task (NC task), an assessment of young children's comprehension of wordless picture books. Study 1 explored developmental improvements in the task, as well as relationships to other measures of early reading. Subjects, 158 K-2 students, were…