Reviews one school district's process for helping kindergarten teachers integrate formal reading instruction into their classrooms. (FL)

Studies by the Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction and others reveal that teacher characteristics account for beginning readers' performance more than do program characteristics. To be most successful in acquiring reading skills, pupils need teachers who provide enough time for practice in skills, who can prompt (model, demonstrate) the…

Describes the rationale, problems, and successes of a literature-based reading program. (FL)

A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that first grade children with a full-day kindergarten experience would achieve higher scores on the Tests for Analysis and Placement (TAP) Level 2 (Readiness) Basic than those children with half-day experience. Subjects were 19 first grade students who completed the TAP on two consecutive days. In…

Describes a summer remedial reading program for first-grade students. Includes discussions of the activities and strategies used to promote comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary development. (FL)

Two curriculum evaluation projects were conducted in response to requests from practitioners interested in determining the quality of commercially developed reading programs. The 1st project, sponsored by 3 school districts in Texas, focused on 5 1st grade reading programs. The 2nd, conducted at the request of junior high, middle-, and high-school…

Intended to provide children with pleasurable reading experiences by letting them feel successful in their early reading attempts, the program described in this booklet employs reading comprehension techniques that have been found effective and focuses on helping to prevent comprehension problems before they arise. The program was designed to be…

This paper provides an overview of Literacy Collaborative, a comprehensive, schoolwide program designed to provide long-term support to schools working toward successful literacy achievement for every child by the end of 2nd grade. There are currently (year 2000) 390 literacy coordinators or trainers serving 372 schools in 25 states. The…

Explains how one teacher developed a cross-age tutoring program that allowed her high school students to help primary grade problem readers. Argues that high school students with reading problems make good tutors for troubled beginning readers because they are sympathetic and inventive. (FL)

Describes a project in which parents were asked to write comments about the picture books their children were reading at home. Contains samples of parent comments. (DF)

In an effort to improve the reading readiness skills of children entering the first grade, a special class was established in a lower socioeconomic area of a large city. Testing procedures were instituted to select appropriate pupils, and pretest and posttest results were used to evaluate the program. The 19 pupils selected for the class were…

This paper provides an overview of the Waterford Early Reading Program (WERP), which is designed to shift teaching and learning away from remediation and failure to prevention, early achievement, and sustained growth for every student. WERP includes three levels of instruction: emergent, beginning, and fluent readers. It targets pre-K through…

The progress, development, and evaluation of the Writing to Read computer program developed by John Henry Martin are detailed in the three sections of this paper. Describing the program as a writing-to-read system that relies initially on children's phonetic spelling--letting the sounds uttered be coded without attention to the inconsistencies of…

Intended to provide a publication outlet for systematic and substantive reviews and syntheses, both empirical and theoretical, and for integrative reports of programatic research, this volume focuses on what children learn when learning to read, and how this learning can be facilitated. The first chapter of the volume offers an analysis of writing…