Five educational leaders--Millie Almy, Carolyn Burke, Jean Berko Gleason, Donald M. Murray, and Neil Postman--offer reflections on significant developments of the 1970s in the areas of reading and writing, their hopes for the 1980s, and references that constitute required reading for elementary language arts teachers. (ET)

Guidelines for teaching reading in bilingual elementary school programs stress the need for language experiences that allow students to think in the second language. Evaluation measures other than standardized tests for assessing progress are suggested. (PMJ)

Reports evidence that some students have reading problems because of instructional emphasis on reading as "exact word reproduction," or of student tendencies to focus too keenly on word-attack skills. (RL)

Shows how plays can be modified and used effectively in remedial reading classes. (RL)

Cites the case of Hebrew learning in Israel to show that, contrary to popular belief, the complexity of grapho-phonetic relationships is a minor or nonexistent factor in learning difficulties. (FL)

A group of eight mildly intellectually handicapped adolescents at a work preparation center were taught to read two lists of words of equal difficulty by different methods--using an autoinstructional device (a 3M sound-on-slide projector) and a more traditional paired-associate method. (Author/SBH)

Describes an experiment which sought to determine what oral reading strategies were operating in the oral reading of primary French immersion children as compared to those in a traditional English language program. (AM)

An experiment in which teachers attempted to read basal readers encoded in Greek orthography suggests that using such materials helps teachers consider ways of fostering reading strategies, think about the nature of reading as a psycholinguistic process, and remember how it feels to be a beginning reader. (GT)

Notes Head Start's obligation to promote literacy skills; presents pertinent strategies: (1) encourage families to talk with and read to children; (2) read to children every day; (3) create a print-rich environment; and (4) infuse reading and writing activities throughout the curriculum. Discusses importance of focusing on language and literacy…

Discusses strategies that teachers can use to support children with and without disabilities in comprehending reading material. Factors contributing to text readability, language learning for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, and strategies for in-class text reading and independent text reading are described. (CR)

Describes the Rapid Retrieval of Information technique used with middle school students in order to satisfy students' desire to read aloud, achieve a purpose from oral reading, and teach adult silent reading patterns. Focuses on the strategy of oral rereading to answer a question, prove a point, or provide an example from the text after silent…

Describes how a teacher who taught the same group of students for fourth and fifth grades taught her students to set reading goals, work to achieve them, reflect on them, use self-evaluation to set new goals, and use portfolios to assess their results. Notes that her students used these tools to learn to be critical thinkers as well. (SR)

Describes how, in one Texas fifth-grade classroom, Shared Inquiry book discussions were taught and implemented over a six-month period in connection with the Junior Great Book Series. Discusses solutions to the dilemma of grading these active class discussions, and reports that scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) tests were…

Describes how a seventh-grade teacher and a special education teacher team-taught three divisions of language arts and reading. Discusses lesson planning, behavior problems, outside support, and significant gains. (SR)

Describes techniques used for teaching French language students to recognize, discriminate between, and pronounce the four French nasal vowels. Includes twenty tongue-twisting sentences exemplifying the different vowels. (MSE)