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…

The purpose of this study was to compare the variety, complexity, and frequency of reading behaviors of three groups of first grade students--students who discontinued from Reading Recovery (D-RR), students who did not discontinue from Reading Recovery (ND-RR), and students who never needed Reading Recovery (A-NRR). Students were asked to read…

Describes how one Maryland school district overhauled its total approach to reading instruction and rescued its struggling students. The problem was more one of poor system design than poor instruction. The research-based intervention was a hybrid of reading recovery and phonics. From 1999-00, the rate of fifth graders reading below grade level…

Various aspects of reading achievement and non-promotion policies as they affect Mexican Americans are investigated. (Author/JP)

In an interview focused on his book "On Learning to Read: The Child's Fascination with Meaning," Bruno Bettelheim explains why he thinks reading primers are insulting and demeaning. He asserts that the absence of content in the primers teach children to dislike reading. (ML)

Tests the hypothesis that there is reason for teachers to be concerned with the interrelation of audience conditions, the probability of success, and the degree of fear of failure influencing reading persistence in boys. (Author/RB)

Describes how basal readers manufacture reading failures among students from less-privileged economic and social backgrounds. Reviews the history of reading instruction in the United States. Calls for educators to speak out against reading practices that protect the privilege of the upper and upper-middle classes by encoding their values and…

A large body of research evidence highlights the required conditions for children to become skilled readers. Within the past decade, research also has uncovered the fact that the origins of skilled reading begin to develop even before children start school. The intent of this article is to provide a brief summary of what is known about the…

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)

Discusses what it would take to end reading failure in the U.S., examining what is already known, looking at the problem of early reading, and presenting a comprehensive strategy for reading by age 9 that involves dissemination of existing best practices, basic and applied research on beginning reading, and development and evaluation of new…

Reviews research concerned with factors contributing to the reading success and failure of children. (FL)

Discusses the use of colored plastic overlays and tinted lens filters to benefit at-risk readers who have the visual perceptual problem known as Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome. (MG)

In 1990, Cunningham developed a Names Test as a quick and easy screening tool for teachers to obtain information about a student's decoding skills. In 1994, Duffelmeyer, Kruse, Merkley, and Fyfe added 10 names to the original Names Test and developed a comprehensive scoring matrix to increase diagnostic information from the test, based on error…

This discussion guide features plans for three workshops, each accompanying one of the 20-minute video programs in the series "Breaking the Cycle of Failure: Marie Carbo's Practical Strategies for Reading Success." The three programs present an overview of the need for teaching based on children's reading styles, the effect of using the…