An account is presented of how schools in Hong Kong have responded to major changes to the official writing curriculum, from the highly structured, whole-class approach which predominantly involved all students in the class painstakingly learning written script and modeling their writing on carefully chosen examples of traditional writing, to an…

Discusses the role of decoding in the framework of reading research and current instructional issues. Emphasizes the importance of decoding as part of the reading and language arts curriculum. Provides instructional implications. Suggests that, although many children learn to read without difficulty using literature-based approaches, many children…

Suggests that students in upper elementary grades and high schools may benefit from extended decoding and spelling instruction, requiring strategies going well beyond phonics. Asserts that learning about morphological structure may provide the strategies needed to decode and spell multisyllabic words. Reviews literature providing a rationale for…