Discusses the question of whether reading should be formally taught at the kindergarten level, arguing that reading skills should not be introduced at this age because children need formal time to experiment without the risk of failure. (RH)

Offers an overview of ERIC resources that can assist in making a microcomputer purchase. (AEA)

Argues that various forms of drama such as synchronized movement, pantomime, and improvisation are natural companions to reading instruction. (Author/FL)

Describes how Edmund Burke Huey's "The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading" helped shape and change the author's concepts of reading. (DD)

Suggests ways to use poems to enliven reading instruction. (DD)

Puppets representing letters of the alphabet are the stars of a television series called The Letter People. (BD)

Reviews theory and research relating to fluency instruction and development. Found that fluency instruction is generally effective; assisted approaches seem to be more effective than unassisted approaches; repetitive approaches do not seem to hold a clear advantage over nonrepetitive approaches; and effective fluency instruction moves beyond…

Describes staff-development plan related to the implementation of the Orange County (Florida) Literacy Project, a research-based literacy-improvement program for middle-school students. Defines literacy as reading, speaking, listening, viewing, and thinking. (PKP)

Offers views on the reading-spelling relationship by two spelling researchers, Jerry Zutell and J. Richard Gentry. Points out that all research supports some degree of formal word study. (MG)

Describes using a model of direct instruction, called EMQA (Explanation, Modeling, Questioning, and Application), as a framework for teaching the rules of summary writing. Argues that teaching students to summarize increases their comprehension of expository text. (SR)

Traces the career of Jack Stenner. Stenner made the empirical discovery that observable readability could be entirely predicted from word familiarity and sentence length, and applied this "Lexile Framework"(R) to books and readers. Discusses the use of the Lexile Framework as a way to target specific readers. (SLD)

In this article we examine methodological and conceptual issues that emerge when researchers measure the enacted curriculum in schools. After outlining key theoretical considerations that guide measurement of this construct and alternative strategies for collecting and analyzing data on it, we illustrate one approach to gathering and analyzing…

William S. Gray is considered by many literacy authorities today to have been the premier reading educator of the last century. He was most noted for his extensive research and writing in many aspects of literacy. The following interview with Gray was originally published in "School and Community," a Missouri state teachers' journal, in 1949.…