A curriculum guide series developed by the City of Chicago's Board of Education to help native Spanish speaking, limited English speaking students develop Spanish language reading skills as a preliminary step in teaching English reading skills consists of 13 books. The level N corresponds to grade 8 instruction. The approach used is…

Education has often created and widened the distinctions between reading and writing rather than focusing on their relationship. More recently, however, research has advanced a view that recognizes reading and writing to be instances of communication between people. Research also suggests that five kinds of knowledge (informational, structural,…

Researchers and educators involved in designing programs of vocabulary instruction must take a more realistic view of the task they face and realize that vocabulary instruction has limitations. First among these limitations is the sheer size of the task. Teaching the meanings of new words one at a time cannot possibly ensure the volume of…

This manual provides reading materials and exercises to teach reading and corollary academic skills. It also exemplifies a method of creating learner-centered materials relevant to the adult student. Teacher materials found at the beginning of the manual include a curriculum guide for obtaining oral histories; the guide is an effective vehicle for…

A study was conducted to identify the contributions of both prior knowledge and prereading vocabulary instruction to passage comprehension. In addition, semantic mapping and semantic feature analysis--instructional strategies that build upon students' prior knowledge--were compared with a modified basal approach for effectiveness as prereading…

The Chicago Mastery Learning Reading Program (CMLRP) discussed in this report is a method of instruction based on the mastery learning model developed by University of Chicago professor Benjamin Bloom. The report describes the procedures and results of an evaluation of the program's effects on reading achievement, information related to the…

Designed to promote the use of microcomputers in reading instruction, this paper attempts to dispell apprehensions that the errors made when adapting television to the classroom may occur again with microcomputers. Examples of the failure of television to teach reading in the 1960s and 1970s are presented, and it is pointed out that television, a…

A study was conducted to assess the validity and reliability of R. Moss's "Classroom Analysis of Teachers' Theoretical Orientation to Reading" in order to provide an observation system specifically intended for assessing a teacher's reading instruction as a function of theoretical orientation. Five reading experts were chosen to…

A program based on the use of printed materials available in the community was successful in improving language skills and student attitudes. (JH)

Describes ways to accelerate reading and language skills by experience stories, creative writing, and books. (TO)

The Ethnic Heritage Learning Center, designed to increase the reading skills of elementary students who are educationally and economically disadvantaged, is described in this paper. The major goal of the Center was to provide supplementary remedial reading instruction. In addition to the 250 students who were selected as a target group, the Center…

In this survey, teachers in 46 elementary schools in the San Francisco Bay area were asked to describe how they worked with reading specialists, if at all. Of 414 teachers reporting, 49.3% reported that the reading specialist instructs selected students, usually outside the classroom, and provides no other services to the teacher. Only 20% of the…

This handbook provides step-by-step procedures through which a task force can examine a school's reading program and can define goals and objectives for the future. Charts are provided to aid in the following processes: gathering data about the population served; assessing the current reading program and assigning priorities for improvement;…

This book examines historical development of reading and writing research and instruction. Chapters discuss the following topics: spelling instruction in the United States; developments in composition research and instruction; reading instruction and research in historical perspective; eye movement and children's reading interests as two trends in…

Three groups (41 university reading faculty members, 34 classroom teachers, and 128 parents) provided data about their attitudes toward the relationship between language and reading, the reading process, and reading instruction. The results suggest that the three groups have different concepts of teaching and learning. For example, in the…