Teachers and administrators often note that preservice programs do not prepare future teachers adequately to teach reading. Several Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states have addressed this problem. In 1997, the Georgia Professional Standards Review Commission began examining reading certification requirements and found that most teacher…

Continuing the conversation began in the book "Invitations," this book further explores the full universe of an effective language arts and literacy program across the curriculum. Filled with an array of field-tested teaching ideas, detailed strategies, reviews of theory, teacher-crafted lessons, and lists of annotated resources, the book presents…

This collection of brief articles, targeting middle school educators, features ideas for reading improvement. The following articles are included: "Special Ed Students Should Read and Re-read for Fluency"; "Collaboration between Special Education and Regular Education: What It Is and How We Make It Work" (Deborah LeGrande);…

Max was one of the boys who went to the St. Kilda Police and Citizens Youth Club every week. He was often in minor scrapes, but nothing serious. When he was 20, he was conscripted into the Australian army and sent to fight in Vietnam, leaving behind his new wife and baby son. Like most of the nearly 50,000 primarily working class Australians in…

This practicum was designed to increase the literacy skills of first-grade students. Students were to improve their reading strategies necessary for success in reading through support from their families and through the use of cross-age reading tutors. A cadre of parent volunteers who presented four parent and child workshops focusing on early…

This book provides comprehensive resources for the critical discussion of major issues in learning to read Chinese from a child acquisition perspective. It is divided into 4 parts and 11 chapters. Part 1, "Theoretical Perspectives on Learning to Read" includes "Current Issues in Learning To Read Chinese" (Ovid J.L. Tzeng),…

This booklet offers practical, up-to-date information on early childhood literacy for those who interact with young children. Topics addressed by the booklet include: (1) supportive learning environments; (2) learning to talk; (3) optimizing learning; (4) supporting the literacy development of young children; and (5) fundamental principles for…

This study described how a fifth grade reading and writing class utilized short stories to comprehend how authors used eight different writing techniques in their own writing. The researcher found that when the fifth grade students comprehended how to use a writing technique they were able to apply it to their own personal, expressive writing. The…

A study examined school factors and teacher factors contributing to primary grade students' reading growth and reading achievement. It investigated school and classroom variables in effective schools as compared to moderately effective and less effective schools and also looked at classroom practices of accomplished teachers as compared to less…

This paper describes development of a bank of interventions in response to individual student needs identified by Student Study Teams (SSTs) in the Horry County (South Carolina) school district. It also describes the training of SST members in the selection, application, and monitoring of each intervention. Following a survey that identified basic…

Mandates about the kind and amount of literacy instruction in classrooms and levels of reading required for successful promotion from grade to grade are currently dominating state and federal legislation. This paper gathers scholarship from three disparate sources to produce the first integrated review of policy-related research on literacy…

A detailed analysis was conducted of the patterns of interactions between a child and a teacher in a one-to-one reading tutorial setting in the context of the Reading Recovery literacy program. The interactions between a teacher and two of her students were observed, videotaped, and analyzed. The participation of the two students in problem…

Arising out of one reading clinician's journey through the training year in Reading Recovery, this paper articulates the content of the lessons learned and explores their implications for clinical reading practice. The lessons learned that are discussed in the paper are: (1) make no excuses for the learner or for yourself; (2) expect learning and…

This article is based on the hypothesis that Reading Recovery teachers sometimes mistakenly reduce or withdraw their support once children have developed strategic processing capabilities and gained higher levels of text reading. It discusses structural characteristics of higher level texts and considers several types of processing demands…

This report summarizes the work and findings of the National Reading Panel, charged by Congress to assess the status of research-based knowledge, including the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching children to read. The introduction to the report discusses the charge to the panel by Congress, establishment of the panel, the panel's…