This document consists of two bibliographies and background material on a symposium conducted by a special interest group of the International Reading Association which provides a forum for librarians and reading teachers to share professional concerns. The document includes a discussion of the formation of the special interest group and the…

The scientific approach with humans is usually subject to many human and environmental variables that are difficult to control. Reading behavior and reading disability are two of the most researched topics in education and psychology, yet reading research continues to abound with contradictions. Standardized tests, speed reading, and computer…

A study investigated the degree to which elementary school reading teachers understood the reading process. Thirty teachers were asked to respond to four questions: (1) Have you ever thought about what you do when you read? (2) Have you ever thought about how meaning is represented in written language? (3) When you are reading, what do you do when…

A Connecticut school's interdisciplinary team approach toward maintaining black handicapped students in the mainstream of a secondary school is described from the point of view of individual team members. The team consists of a social worker, a guidance counselor/psychologist, special education teacher, and reading specialist. The special…

Comparisons were made of qualitative and quantitative information collected in nine second grade reading classes in a study that examined the respective strengths and weaknesses of using such information to evaluate teacher behavior. Data that were collected included trained ethnographers' narrative observations of teacher behavior (the…

This paper explores the professional preparation of remedial reading specialists for the community college. Various sections of the paper discuss the following topics: (1) the need for more reading specialists at the community college level, (2) the past training of college reading specialists, (3) undergraduate training of college reading…

The elementary program for gifted and talented students in Willingboro, New Jersey, is called the Program for Academically Talented Students (PATS) and is in its third year of operation. The program is administered by the supervisor of reading/language arts and is taught by each of the ten building reading specialists who received special training…

A list of 28 general teaching skills was given to 74 elementary teachers, who were asked to select what they considered the ten most important skills for teaching elementary reading. Based on the frequency of responses, tbe most important teaching skills, in rank order, were the following: (1) using informal observations of student work for…

From 1976 through 1979, Shelby County, Tennessee, schools participated in a Right to Read Special Emphasis project. An experimental and a control school were used, in which more than 50% of the pupils read one or more grades below level. The project included the use of reading specialists, a structured reading system (DISTAR), a summer reading…

The theme of this special journal issue is diagnostic reading instruction. The first of two main articles discuss ways to teach reading in a diagnostic-prescriptive way and the second deals with how to select a reading instruction approach for the mainstreamed child. Regular journal features discuss research on assessing readers' strategies…

The effectiveness of personal attention from reading teachers in increasing student attendance and scholastic achievement was investigated in a study of 98 students in 15 New York City high schools which receive Title I, and New York State, funding for remedial reading. Each of 49 remedial reading teachers initiated a relationship with a randomly…

This issue of "Epistle," the publication forum of Professors of Reading Teacher Educators, contains three papers as well as the regular features on job openings and on miscellaneous facts. Titles and authors of the articles are: "Doctoral Education in Reading: The State of the Art," by Richard Allington; "The Virtues of Being a Toad and What That…

Compares kinds of learning or skills required in reading and library media use in the following categories: (1) factual information; (2) visual identification; (3) principles and concepts; (4) procedures; (5) perceptual motor skills; and (6) attitude and opinion development. Cooperation between reading teachers and media specialists is advocated.…

Presents an annotated list of sources of tried-and-true activities that will help to put teachers on track with content area instruction. Intended as a resource for high school reading specialists who need to persuade content area teachers of the value of new and different instructional strategies. (SKC)

Presents a satirical view of the current literature on reading. Suggests that reading therapy inundates the student with theoretical constructs. (ARH)