Controversy rages over whole-language/phonics approaches to reading instruction, giving critics great school-bashing opportunities. Districts that have successfully incorporated whole language generally have planned for change, involved parents, proceeded slowly, built in ongoing professional development, provided adequate resources, reassured…

Describes the development and implementation of meaning-based reading instruction for a group of sixth-grade students with special learning needs. Provides details as to program design and describes a sample session. (SR)

Describes a writing program in a first-grade classroom in a primarily low-socioeconomic, urban Appalachian region. Notes that the program aims at helping children become writers and to: (1) teach the concept of writing as communication; (2) learn about children's strengths and needs through observations and writing samples and teach accordingly;…

Discusses collaboration between a teacher and an education professor in developing and implementing a new reading/language-arts program in a fifth-grade classroom. The move from a traditional basal reading and language-arts textbook approach to one using novels and process writing meant many changes for both teacher and students. An Author's…

Describes a preliminary study of the development and psychometric integrity of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) norms for literature-based reading. Assesses the reading achievement of 403 first through third graders. Results show that CBM procedures can be modified to develop local norms for literature-based instruction. (MKA)

Outlines a descriptive (not prescriptive) approach for the creation of a literature-based reading curriculum. Describes the 4 steps (behaving with basals, redefining reading, revving up for reading, and letting literature loose) that took the author 14 years of teaching to complete. Argues that literature-based reading programs are fun, enjoyable,…

Describes the development and implementation of a whole language program in Quebec (Canada), a unilingual French province. Focuses on the meaning of educational change at various levels of Quebec's educational system. Presents perspectives and competing ideologies on whole language. (Author/BB)

A group of reading teachers at a Pennsylvania middle school was charged with developing a uniform reading program and selecting reading materials to meet their students' needs. This article describes the committee's work, focusing on the selection and adaption of a whole-language basal-reading program that incorporates writing and other language…

The paper describes a successful effort at collaboration among a college reading program, a neighborhood self-help agency, and a public school. The three-way partnership was formed to improve the literacy levels of 12 behaviorally disturbed children in the fifth and sixth grades. The project involves whole language reading instruction and…