In this study, two different approaches to the teaching of reading were designed and presented over an eight-week period, then evaluated according to student scores on three standardized tests. After a pretest, nine first-grade classes were randomly assigned to one of three groups: literature, concept development, or control. In the literature…

The relationship between subject of instruction and the classroom behavior of teachers and pupils was assessed in this study. The study was conducted over a two-year period of observation of elementary grade classes. Two variables were investigated: individual pupil participation and teacher verbal behavior. Only two subjects, reading and…

The Reading Assistance Program at San Jose State University was introduced through the aid of credential candidates from the reading specialist, educational counseling, and bilingual-multicultural specialist programs. Low-achieving university freshmen were taught in small groups using the jigsaw technique in which each student is given a piece of…

Beginning reading instruction is a challenge that teachers can meet successfully by using imagination, working hard, displaying enthusiasm, and expressing genuine concern for the young children that they teach. This paper offers guidelines for beginning reading teachers who base their programs on traditional basal readers. The guidelines are…

A distinction can be made between the term "creativity" and creative thinking skills. Creativity typically refers to a talent for original and masterful production in the arts and sciences, and there is scant evidence that teachers have any influence on creativity of this kind. Creative thinking refers to a group of six thinking skills that if…

The purpose of this teaching unit is to improve the reading skills of fifth grade students, particularly reading comprehension, by increasing their knowledge about how language works. The three sections of the unit introduce the students to the concepts of context clues and paraphrasing (words, sentences, paragraphs, and stories) and give the…

The primary goal of early reading instruction, according to this paper, should be to teach children to comprehend written discourse in a manner similar to that for oral discourse because both types of discourse require decoding ability--graphic or acoustic. The paper asserts that to simply design reading instruction to achieve the subgoal of…

Reviews and evaluative comments concerning the 11 papers read during the April 1976 portion of the Pittsburgh conference on the theory and practice of beginning reading are included in this document. Before the papers are reviewed, information is presented on some questions posed at the conference within the context of two issues that were raised…

The second Pittsburgh conference on the theory and practice of beginning reading, held in May 1976, is evalauted in this paper by pointing out some of the "critical incidents" that occurred at the conference and that indicated the types of interactions that must take place between reading theory and practice in the future. The paper…

A framework for a comprehensive theory of reading is presented in this paper. The framework consists of perceptual, semantic, and control systems. The perceptual and semantic spaces of the theory should not be confused with the terms "decoding" and "comprehension"; decoding and comprehension refer to ways in which those spaces…

The two reading programs discussed in this paper, "Reading Unlimited" (RU) published by Scott Foresman and "New Primary Grades Reading Systems" (RS) by the University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center, provide maximal contrasts in materials and teaching strategies. The instructional strategies in RU are…

In this paper, it is suggested that reading instruction can be improved by studying the interactions of students and teachers in beginning reading classes. Such research could identify effective environments for learning to read, providing teachers with alternative and effective ways of adapting reading instruction to the students' needs. The…

Current issues in reading diagnosis and remediation may be classified as political, diagnostic, and remedial. The main political issue in recent years has been the overlapping of the concepts of learning disability and reading disability and the consequent conflict of jurisdiction of reading specialists and learning disability specialists. This…

Secondary teachers must help students to expand vocabulary skills, to understand and apply ideas in complex reading material, and to improve organizational and work-study skills. To assess reading instruction at the junior high school level in one school district, classroom observations were made of teachers of mathematics, science, social…

This study attempted to assess the effects on the achievement and attitudes of preservice teachers at Washington State University of a modular independent study program about teaching reading to minority children. A total of 81 students was randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group completed five…