The purpose of this study was to examine how readers build orthographic knowledge for irregular words, defined as words that do not conform to conventional phonics rules and patterns. This study tests my theory that readers use phonological decoding, crosschecking and mental markings to read and spell unfamiliar irregular words. Forty-three…

This purpose of this study was to develop a clearer understanding of the complex, interrelated factors that lead to successful informational text comprehension and to determine if or how these factors vary for higher and lower comprehenders. Participants (N = 177) were in grades three through five and were predominately African American (61%) and…

This study examined a Pseudoword Phonics Curriculum to determine if this form of instruction would increase students' decoding skills compared to typical real-word phonics instruction. In typical phonics instruction, children learn to decode familiar words which allow them to draw on their prior knowledge of how to pronounce the word and may…