This reader-friendly text examines the key foundational studies in early literacy. It addresses such essential questions as how research informs current practices and where the field still needs to go to provide the best learning opportunities for all children. Each chapter describes the methods and findings of one to five seminal studies,…

Grounded in a strong evidence base, this indispensable text and practitioner guide has given thousands of teachers tools to support the literacy growth of beginning and struggling readers in grades K-2. The interactive strategies approach (ISA) is organized around core instructional goals related to enhancing word learning and comprehension of…

Discusses how reading comprehension can be improved through research-validated instruction. Outlines emerging issues of comprehension instruction, such as the limits of word-recognition instruction, cognitive capacity constraints, and diverse text tasks. Contends that there needs to be experimental validation of comprehensive comprehension…

Although reading instruction alone can teach students many of the skills and strategies they require for reading content area materials successfully, students also must have ample opportunities to apply these skills and strategies in "real" reading situations--that is, as they read in the content areas. Specifically, teachers can provide…

Describes seven learning strategies designed to promote word recognition, vocabulary development, and reading comprehension in secondary students with mild disabilities. An instructional sequence is provided for each of the strategies, research findings are reported, and a checklist is included that teachers can use to evaluate learning…

Based on the idea that knowing which words to use and how to use them are keys to an individual's getting the most from his or her mind, this book aims to improve people's vocabularies. To find out which words should be known, research into the vocabularies of educated adults was conducted by "The Princeton Review." Newspapers from…

Schema Theory, the use of the learner's background knowledge for the building of new knowledge, is applied to improving reading comprehension skills and teaching vocabulary words and concepts to learning disabled students. Semantic mapping is a vocbulary strategy which produces the interaction between prior knowledge in a graphic form. For…

Using a personalized word association method, six children with persistent reading difficulties in two British elementary schools were instructed in recognizing 100 common words. All children made significant progress, with the most progress made by those who originally had the smallest sight vocabularies. Students who devised their own sentences…

This article discusses using sign language to help students with learning disabilities remember sight words. It describes the rationale for using sign language, gives directions for playing a game called Sign-o (similar to the game Bingo), provides extension activities, and includes a game board ready for duplication. (Contains references.)…

Presents an overview of the components of content-area reading instruction (word identification, vocabulary, and comprehension) and describes instructional strategies that can be used to teach middle and high school students with reading disabilities how to approach content-area reading. Tips for selecting textbooks are also included. (Author/CR)

Melding what has been learned from research, theory, and experience, this book presents a comprehensive plan for assisting students in becoming lifelong readers and attaining the level of critical literacy crucial for success in the 21st century. Chapters begin with a brief personal statement or scenario to spark interest in the topic and to…

The reading activities collected in this handbook were used in parent workshops organized to increase the involvement of parents of Italian descent in teaching their children reading skills. The goal of the lessons was to increase parents' activities directed toward reading skills and to familiarize parents with what their children were learning…