Two "sacred cows" inherent in reading instruction for disabled readers are rejected: Disabled readers must be taught with simple reading materials, and most teaching time must be spent on reading skills. Two case studies illustrate the teaching of decoding skills and "dyad reading" of books selected by the disabled reader.…

The whole language philosophy of teaching reading and writing is outlined and related to children's acquisition of oral and written language. A typical whole language classroom is described, along with the roles of the teacher and students. A chart contrasts whole language theory with more typical methods of literacy education. (Author/JDD)

This review of cognitive development research in the area of computer-based reading instruction focuses on reinforcement and instructional objectives. Differences between extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement and motivation are discussed, types of objectives and learner characteristics are described, and implications for instructional design are…

Suggests ways in which parents and teachers can work together to improve the reading development of children. Presents results from a survey which examined parents' knowledge and beliefs about reading, and indicated the need for more parent-teacher interaction. Recommends parents make a conscious effort to reinforce the school's reading program.…

This discussion of assessing students' reading abilities focuses on the need for developing better tests and better interpretation of test scores. Criterion-referenced tests versus norm-referenced tests are described, highlighting the Degrees of Reading Power and Metropolitan Achievement Tests: Reading, and the need for assessing the reading…

Suggests linguistic guessing strategies designed to help older students with reading problems. (FL)

Based on response categories of the Classroom Activity Recording Form, instructional behaviors of 30 teachers of mildly retarded and learning disabled elementary students (N=122) were used to predict reading achievement gain on the California Achievement Test. Time spent in teacher questioning was the single best predictor of achievement gain.…

Recounts the use of: (1) a game of reading trivia to review a unit in reading, (2) a reading-related art activity that emphasized the importance of following directions, and (3) the assignment of a research paper in a remedial curriculum. (NKA)

Concludes that teacher enthusiasm training is effective in increasing levels of observable teacher enthusiasm and that teachers so trained had an effect on their students' attitudes toward reading. (FL)

Argues that while many publishers may simplify the sentence structure in the basal reader to facilitate the process of learning to read, this practice may result in texts with stylistic features and text formats that are unnatural and uncharacteristic of written English or the language development level of the children. (FL)

Concludes that three experimental programs were more effective than traditional approaches in beginning reading instruction: (1) a literature program using special decoding strategies, (2) a literature program not using the special strategies, and (3) a traditional basal approach using the special decoding strategies. (FL)

Offers opinions on teaching reading in the content area, teaching vocabulary to precollege students, helping remedial readers interact with their reading, and evaluating teacher made tests. (SRT)

Examines the evolution of reading comprehension in English classrooms and examination rooms and considers active and collaborative approaches to teaching reading comprehension. (HOD)

Multiple reading measures and writing measures were administered to 256 second graders and 251 fifth graders. A canonical correlational analysis, grade level analyses, and cohort analyses for beginning and proficient readers were performed. Reading or writing never explained more than 43 percent of the variance in the opposite test set. (Author/BS)

Explains six instructional components, based on a psycholinguistic view of reading, for teaching the adolescent disabled reader to read. (HOD)