A study investigated spelling error patterns in native Spanish-speaking students of English as a Second Language to determine the degree to which errors can be attributed to phonological patterns. Specifically, it examined (1) which spellings can be attributed to differences in voicedness of consonants, and (2) whether the voicedness can be used…

Intended to help educators select textbooks that represent the highest standards of quality instruction, these guidelines describe major aspects of textbooks--of language arts instruction--considered essential. Following an introduction, the eight guidelines (whose features should be central to a program's design and should pervade the entire…

This study compared and evaluated three alternative theoretical models of the reading-writing relationship. Reading dimensions included word analysis, vocabulary, and sentence comprehension components; writing dimensions included spelling, vocabulary, sentence structure, and story organization components. Models differed in sequential orderings of…

Suggests limitations on the sensitivity of cloze procedures to measure the ability of college students to use information across sentence boundaries. (AEA)

Describes how to select functional materials and techniques for teaching reading survival skills. (DD)

Discusses Character Perspective Charting, an instructional technique useful in elementary reading classes that fosters story understanding. Discusses how it was developed, how the authors have used it, how other teachers have used it, and what children learn from it. (SR)

Describes a Chicago, IL, family literacy program that offers simultaneous and connected education for Latino adults and children. Discusses how the Parents as Teachers and ESL parts of the program are connected; how to construct a family literacy curriculum; what language should be used for family literacy instruction; and what happens in a…

Provides independent analysis of the extant evaluations of Reading Recovery. Finds that students make greater than expected gains in reading, effects comparable to those accomplished by other effective educational interventions; and that programs are less effective in maintaining student gains and more costly than has been claimed. Offers…

Describes a cooperative learning activity in a fifth-grade class in which students researched, wrote, and sponsored classroom resolutions honoring African Americans during Black History Month. Discusses how literacy has the power to connect students with their heritage or with any heritage they choose to connect with. (SR)

Offers an introduction to this new column about reading and writing and curriculum integration. Discusses the social nature of reading and writing. (SR)

To investigate the causes of variation in cloze-comprehension test correlations, a reanalysis was conducted of the influential J.R. Bormuth study (1962), which reported correlations between nine cloze and nine comprehension tests administered to 50 subjects in grades 4, 5, and 6. Two separate renalayses were completed in the present study, the…

A study compared and evaluated alternative theoretical models of the relationship of learning to read and learning to write at beginning and advanced levels of reading development. The reading dimensions of the three models included word analysis, vocabulary, and sentence and passage comprehension components. The writing dimensions included…

Suggests that learning the reasons for and uses of literacy is important for beginning readers. Describes a series of activities, based on practices used in adult literacy programs, that were designed to make first graders aware of the reasons for reading and writing. (ARH)

This study of 26,279 high school sophomores attempted to correlate fixed and alterable conditions which influence student achievement in academic subjects. Major differences in achievement appear to be due to fixed characteristics of students and outside school experiences, not to the private-school superiority hypothesis. (Author/MT)

Reanalyzes 12th-grade data from the "High School and Beyond" study in order to resolve controversies regarding the original analysis, its methodology, and secondary studies it generated. Finds no evidence that private schools produce superior cognitive achievement, once their students' socioeconomic characteristics and extramural…