In this "Struggling Readers" department, the author describes a collaborative lesson--a professional development strategy adapted from Reading Recovery. Collaborative lessons involve a small group of educators who collaborate to help a student who is struggling with reading. While collaborative lessons were initially designed by Reading Recovery…

Offers suggestions for helping the older child who has not learned to read, including developing a sight word bank using a memorized book, using these sight words as the basis for decoding instruction, and including the nonreader in a reading group. (ARH)

Examined how contextual variables affect types of instructional adaptations teachers propose for students experiencing academic failure. Within academic areas (reading or mathematics), teachers (n=76) were assigned randomly to three idea generation formats: oral independent, written independent, and assisted with ideas for potential solutions.…

This book provides (1) specific information about overt classroom behaviors that affect or reflect academic success or failure, and (2) information and suggestions about alternative teaching strategies that may be used to increase behavioral effectiveness and subsequent academic achievement. The focus of the book is on specific behaviors, behavior…

The thesis that "as things are" some pupils enter school predisposed to success while some enter it predisposed to failure is explored in this book. The first question raised, in chapter 1, is why the schools are allowed to discount as irrelevant to the educational endeavor the experience of language and life that children bring to school with…

Studied beyond students' failing scores on a state reading assessment to investigate the needs of struggling students and implications for policy. Results for 108 students in 17 elementary schools suggest that scores on state tests mask distinctive and multifaceted patterns of students'reading abilities that require dramatically different…

Reviews four articles which suggest ways to help elementary students overcome frustration from reading failure. Suggests modifying negative attitudes, improving achievement through parent counseling, and teaching students self-regulatory skills. (SR)

This study examined the effects of cooperative and competitive goal structures on children's evaluations of the learning experience and on children's self-reward. Fourth-graders (n=180) were assigned to learning groups of three children each by a stratified (sex and ability) random sampling procedure. Groups were assigned to either the group…

A memorization technique using books recorded on tapes gave nonreading children practice in reading connected discourse and put them in touch with a variety of books. (JH)

The author suggests strategies for forcing success on students who seem determined to fail and for altering their negative opinions of their own ability. (SJL)

Both the remediation of reading deficiencies and the alleviation of severely deviant behaviors are necessary for the proper social and emotional development of the child and for his normal academic achievement. A successful reading program for children with behavior problems provides for daily success. Initial and continued teacher reinforcement…

A third-grade Mexican-American boy, failing in school, proved to be an apt and avid reader and learner when instructional talk was related to recurrent themes in his daily life. The study suggests that instructional talk can be modified in ways that invite and involve learners' lives, allowing teachers to engage students more fully. (SLD)

Classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) is described as a potential tool for preventing early school failure, with emphasis on three areas relevant to its successful classroom implementation: (1) the classroom program; (2) the administrative model; and (3) implementation quality assessment. Studies showing CWPT's long-term positive effects on academic…

Collected together in this volume are the background papers for the National Advisory Committee on Dyslexia and Related Reading Disorders. Papers include "The Nature of the Reading Process"; "Bases of Classification of Reading Disorders"; "Sex Differences in Reading Disability"; "Dyslexia: Neurological and Genetic Etiology"; "Dyslexia and Its…

Argues that classroom learning inevitably requires adaptive responses by students, and that teachers should deliberately promote the development of students' adaptive learning within a supportive classroom environment by emphasizing the constructive benefits of functional failure and the limited benefits of uninformative success. (SKC)