Based on the premise that improvement in students' reading, writing, and content area skills occurs when authentic literature is used as the core of reading instruction, this book offer guidelines for teachers who wish to incorporate literature into their classrooms. According to the book, the educational value of children's books as teaching…

A program to improve social studies reading comprehension among students of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) was developed in the form of a practicum for use in an exemplary new school in Florida. Participants were five ESOL students, aged 9-11, with widely varying English proficiency, and a group of fifth grade teachers responsible…

This anthology of 22 published articles and book chapters written by Dorothy Watson (the first president of the Whole Language Umbrella) were chosen for their historical importance, centrality to Watson's body of work, lack of availability, and/or their ongoing relevance to teachers. Items in the anthology are grouped to reflect major themes…

This paper describes a study that evaluated a program in which students' reading and writing skills improved with the enhancement of various interventions related to reading and writing. The targeted population consisted of elementary students enrolled in first and third grades in northern Illinois. The lack of reading and writing success was…

Intended as a guide for teachers of grades 3-6, this book presents ideas for the use of literature groups in the classroom. In chapter 1, the author talks about her own reading background and her discovery of teaching methods for literature, and presents ideas for forming literature groups. Chapter 2 offers advice on selecting and collecting good…

This monograph presents seven papers on the research, and pedagogical aspects of developmental education and implications for a definition of developmental education. After an introductory paper by the editors, the papers are: (1) "The New Science: Connections with Developmental Education" (Dana D. Darby); (2) "Issues Affecting the Definition of…

A study examined whether one modality for the act of reading occurred with greater frequency than another among a group of students experiencing difficulty acquiring the skill of reading. A reading style inventory was administered to 40 elementary school students enrolled in a basic skills reading program in Westfield, New Jersey, during the…

A group of adult education teachers sought to determine if a readability formula applied to classroom materials provided a match with student reading levels. Cloze tests were used to determine whether students were able to understand the material. In three of the eight samples, the Cloze test showed that the readability test did not accurately…

This 44-item bibliography presents annotations of video resources for the teaching of literacy that feature instructors who effectively put theory into practice--videos that portray literacy teachers and learners in action. To preserve the aesthetic integrity of individual videos produced as part of a series, individual videos are not classified…

Reading for meaning is the primary objective of reading instruction. Therefore, it is imperative that teachers focus on effective ways to instruct comprehension strategies. Concurrently, holistic assessment that is authentic, varied, reflective and ongoing is also a critical objective of reading instruction. These two objectives can be met when…

A study compared an integrated language arts reading program and a strong phonics basal reading program. Subjects were first graders from five eastern Greenbrier County schools in West Virginia. The control group consisted of students in 15 classrooms, during the 1994-95 school year, when a strong phonics basal reading program was taught and…

This final report describes an effective, computer-based method of communicating new syntactic knowledge to students with deafness. "Choosing AVMs," the first intervention developed on the Macintosh computer, used advanced visual markers (AVMs) (icons) to communicate the essence of the syntactical structure to be taught by: (1) capturing…

New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) conducted a statewide telephone survey of 531 randomly selected kindergarten through fourth-grade public school teachers to obtain information on how schools prevent and address reading problems. Results indicated that (1) 95% of respondents said remediation should begin at grade 1 or earlier, but less than…

Grade-5 teachers, who were nominated by their supervisors as effective in educating their students to be readers and writers, responded to questionnaires about their practice. The 33 teachers claimed commitments to: (1) extensive reading at the heart of their reading instruction; (2) diverse instructional activities (e.g., whole-group instruction,…

A study examined different teaching styles to determine which was more beneficial to a kindergartner. The study was conducted through the first marking quarter of the school year. Subjects were 24 kindergartners in a suburban, middle class community within the New York City School District. Students were divided into three sample groups meeting in…