Describes an interactive method of teaching reading that can be adapted to students' needs, skills, experience, and culture. Shows how the method develops phonological awareness and builds on skills adults already have, such as manual dexterity, visual analysis, and observation. (SK)

Presents a basic definition of sight words. Provides a nine-item annotated bibliography of studies on sight words in different types of academic environments (published in ERIC from 1991-1993). (PA)

Describes a guessing game called "Sentencing," which can be played with students from third grade through high school. It develops students' abilities to use semantic, syntactic, and graphophonic cues and also allows teachers to view the metacognitive strategies of their students. (SR)

Advocates a strategy for developing students' ability to think critically by involving them in tasks with perceived conflicts and discrepancies, starting with ads for common products and moving on to news reports and variants of literature. (SR)

Warns that students may misread or misunderstand texts during an individual reading activity. Urges teachers to pay close attention to how readers actually move into a story. (MM)

This analysis of 17,602 frequently used words found that 616 orthographic rimes occurred in rime families as building blocks of almost all the 43,041 word syllables. Of these, 436 were both regular and consistent in pronunciation, and only 86 had less than a 90 percent level of consistency. Results suggest the usefulness of rime units for teaching…

Provides information on how teachers can contribute additional encouragement, direction, and guidance for exploring and expanding intermediate-grade students' personal response to literature. Describes eight response options and offers guidelines. (PRA)

Demonstrates how sixth graders became engaged with the daily journal of an eleventh grader and how this motivated them to write journals themselves. Discusses the varying topics they read and wrote about and how they learned from this experience. (PRA)

Results of a recent study indicate that, when students write about relevant, personal experiences prior to reading a literary text, their understanding and engagement in the text are significantly improved. Recommends autobiographical writing before a reading assignment. (22 references) (MLF)

Defines the Paired Reading technique and comments upon minor variations. Discusses the background to Paired Reading, and the theoretical framework for the technique. Concludes that its effects are mediated by a number of different factors, and the technique should, therefore, be widely philosophically acceptable. (SR)

Reviews document strategies called "locate tasks." Discusses "cycle tasks," tasks requiring two or more locate tasks, repeating the known/need-to-know steps, thus cycling to earlier steps in the known/need-to-know procedure. (SR)

Discusses the whole-language philosophy and its view of language, learning, and teaching. Discusses the whole-language view of the relationship between students and teachers and the holistic approach. (PRA)

Asserts that picture books are a medium for all ages. Recommends several recent picture books and groups them under headings suggesting potential uses, with extra activities noted. (PRA)

Discusses specific objectives related to the three-year Target Four Reading Program developed by the staff at Central School in Roundup, Montana. (RS)

Notes that literature-based reading approaches are becoming increasingly popular in Canada as well as in other parts of North America. Reviews the rationale behind shared book experiences and literary clubs. Provides a variety of language-rich tasks to guide children as they respond to the stories they are reading. (RS)