This study investigated the effects of two levels of intensity (one lesson per day or two lessons per day) of a spelling intervention on students at risk for school failure. A quasi-experimental group design with random assignment was used. Elementary-level participants (n = 39) enrolled in a 4-week summer remedial program progressed through the…

Although the recent publication of the Rose Report appears to draw a line in the sand that privileges synthetic phonics over other methods in the UK, history indicates a pendulum swing of preference between whole-word and phonics since the advent of mass education. Suggesting that the current "victory" for exponents of synthetic phonics…

Fifteen regular grade 2 teachers used a set of 150 written lessons that were designed to develop, over the course of a school year, low and normally achieving students' ability to decode by analogy (i.e., to read unknown words using known words). The lessons provided (1) a planned sequence for teaching phonic elements including common spelling…

The beginning reading method explained in this book combines a phonics approach with a sight word/basal reader approach, a method which the author used during her many years in the classroom. The author has found that children can become independent readers in two to four months and may read from 10 to 200 books independently in the first year.…

The effects of four language units to teach inner-city children to read words and syllables were compared using 86 children from 4 kindergarten classes in an Oakland, California, elementary school. The language units and beginning reader approaches utilizing them were: the grapheme/phoneme (synthetic), the morpheme (similar spelling pattern), the…

In this study, three programs of elementary school spelling instruction were compared to determine which of the programs produced student achievement and favorable attitudes and whether the effects of the several programs differed for pupils in different I.Q. ranges. About 495 fifth grade children were randomly assigned to three treatment groups…

The study reports on a treatment package which effectively used constant time delay, practice in writing or spelling target words, and token reinforcement to teach sight word recognition to a group of three seven-year-old students in a learning and behavior disorders resource room. (Author/JDD)

Intended to help dispel several unsupported "myths" about reading instruction, this book analyzes a selected group of teaching practices that have been supported by reading experts but not by research findings. The "myths" discussed in the first 12 chapters of the book are as follows: (1) phonics hinders comprehension; (2) unpredictable spelling…