Hypothesizes that good spellers read by full cues while poor spellers read by partial cues, and also investigates short term memory differences between the two groups. Finds good spellers were faster readers, better at identifying matches and mismatches between similar nonsense words, and had better short term memories than poor spellers. (SKC)

Discusses research on direct vocabulary instruction. Suggests that instructional practices can be affected by the educator's philosophy toward teaching vocabulary, by the amount of practice afforded for building associations between words and meanings, and by the information provided for promoting "fuller" understanding of word meaning.…

This document, "Grade Expectations for Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities" (hereafter "Vermont's Grade Expectations"), is an important companion to "Vermont's Framework." These Grade Expectations (GEs) serve the same purposes as "Vermont's Framework," but articulate learning…

This comprehensive resource can be used by teachers to align instruction with current standards and to give students the best possible foundation for reading achievement. Organized around the five essential components of reading instruction identified in the report of the U.S. National Reading Panel, this book: (1) Lays the groundwork for creating…

In this lesson plan, grade 3 to 5 students examine elements of fluent reading through oral poetry performance. They use the Internet to identify a poem to prepare and perform for the class. The main objective of this lesson concerns improving fluency. During four hours over a span of five days, students will: be able to identify text written in…

Research has demonstrated that when teachers use curriculum-based measurement (CBM) to inform their instructional decision making, students learn more, teacher decision making improves, and students are more aware of their own performance (e.g., Fuchs, Deno, & Mirkin, 1984). CBM research, conducted over the past 30 years, has also shown CBM to be…

This research brief highlights key findings from a study that is a subset of a larger study being conducted jointly by NCSALL's John Strucker and Kentaro Yamamoto and Irwin Kirsch of the Educational Testing Service (ETS). This study builds on the proposition that a reader's comprehension performance is largely determined by his or her abilities in…

This paper provides a review of the theoretical discussions and practical studies relating to fluency instruction and reading development. The basic research strategy was to survey the range of definitions for fluency, the primary features of fluent reading, and studies that have attempted to improve the fluency of struggling readers in one of…

The focus of this study was on the use of drama supplements to increase the reading fluency of first grade students in a suburban school. The subjects of this study were first grade students. They were between six and eight years old and attended a suburban school in Knoxville, Tennessee. The class contained eight girls and twelve boys. Students…

The developing relation between children's knowledge about the goals and processes of reading, their skills to apply metacognitive strategies, and reading comprehension was examined. Participants were children in third-, fifth-, and eighth-grades in two primary schools in Rijeka, Croatia. All students were Croatian-speaking. A questionnaire of…

This report summarizes the spring 2003, seventh-grade reading achievement data from five different schools in an urban school district in a mid-sized city in the Pacific Northwest. The original data set contained 358 students, but 96 students were removed from the data set prior to analysis because they had no scores in any of the dependent…

An interview with Dr. Shaywitz , pediatrician, neuroscientist, and member of the National Reading Panel, focuses on the ways the brains of young children develop and what can be done to prevent early learning difficulties. (MLF)

Analyzes pre- and post-test measures of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) of oral reading fluency and reading comprehension collected from a sample of middle school students in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the computer-based Reading Plus and Guided Reading program. Obtains significant differences in discrepancy ratios from pre- to…

Describes Readers Theatre and presents procedures for implementing it. Recommends 24 books for Readers Theatre. Concludes that Readers Theatre can play a constructive role in language arts programs. Notes how it actively engages children in literature and drama, stimulates intrinsic motivation for reading and writing, and facilitates development…

Analyzes the reading levels of students and the readability levels of textbooks at selected junior colleges in Alabama during the 1987-88 school year. Shows why the disparity between textbook reading levels and student abilities causes reading problems in the classroom. (RAE)