This is a quantitative research project utilizing secondary data. Reading Recovery and Leveled Literacy Intervention are two early literacy interventions based on a whole language and phonetic approach to reading instruction. For the purposes of this study, the end-of-first-grade benchmark is a Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) 18 and the…

There seems to be a pendulum in the field of education that sways from one extreme to another when a teaching method is introduced. The whole language concept caught on, and phonics instruction was then considered defunct. The pendulum now in the process of swinging back is being intercepted, before it goes to the extreme of "all…

Much is written and spoken about in terms of whole language versus phonics in early reading instruction in the public schools, but the issue between whole language versus phonics probably pertains to what is needed by individual pupils. There are advantages as well as disadvantages for whole language approaches in reading instruction. Needs differ…

Describes research projects conducted in a first-grade literature-based reading program; a second-grade fluency-oriented reading instructional program that uses both children's literature and a basal reader; and a second-grade literature/strategy-based program. (RS)

A successful reading program is a broad-based personalized program that recognizes that reading is a mixture of various skills: phonemic awareness, grapho-phonemic correspondence, word analysis and synthesis, sight-word vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, semantic knowledge, and literary knowledge. Changes in instructional techniques are made based…

A practicum developed and implemented an integrated reading program to raise reading vocabulary and comprehension scores and reading attitudes in a fourth-grade classroom. A classroom of 23 students was used to implement the program. A standard diagnostic test was used to record pre- and post-test scores in vocabulary and comprehension, and a…

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,…

The Easy Steps to Reading Independence (ESTRI) Program is a reading program to be used to support whole language or basal reader programs by enabling limited ability or non-readers to begin reading, or to remediate reading disabilities, at age and grade appropriate levels immediately, without requiring the students to know sight words before…

A study was conducted to investigate the curricular experiences of the low achievers, including the quality of the programs they participated in and the congruence between their classroom and pullout programs. Three lower-middle-class first graders in the Pacific Northwest participated in the study: John spent the entire day in the classroom;…

Three studies determined if the Summer Step reading program (a residential camping program implemented on the campus of Camp Baskervill Episcopal Outreach of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, using a personalized, contextualized reading approach) was effective, if children's self-esteem was enhanced by participation in the program, and if the…