The Reading Teacher articles from February 2003

The Reading Teacher archives from February 2003

They can read the words, but they can't understand: refining comprehension assessment: comprehension problems can be difficult to detect and treat. Here are some suggestions for catching these problems and addressing students shortcomings.
February 1, 2003... Mark (all student names are pseudonyms) was a modern Eddie Haskell--the overly ingratiating next-door neighbor who was a friend to Wally Cleaver in the 1950s U.S. television series Leave It to Beaver. Mark, like Eddie Haskell, knows just what...

A new spin on teaching vocabulary: a source-based approach. (Teaching Ideas).
February 1, 2003... We believe that teachers should try to use a source-based approach for teaching vocabulary rather than using alphabetized lists or focusing solely on the "hard words" in whatever students happen to be reading. A source-based approach to...

Words of fortune. (Teaching Ideas).
February 1, 2003... The entire class focused on Jamaal (all student names are pseudonyms) as he started to move around the room. Jamaal stared at the floor and looked upset. Other students immediately started calling out words: "Angry!" "Sad!" "Lost!"...

What do I See? What do I Think? What do I Wonder? (STW): A visual literacy strategy to help, emergent readers focus on storybook illustrations. (Teaching Ideas).
February 1, 2003... Storybook illustrations are essential to stories. Illustrations depict characters' actions, expressions, and emotions. They create and capture moods such as humor, poignancy, or sadness. Illustrations also establish settings--both time and...

Reading specialists in schools with exemplary reading programs: functional, versatile, and prepared: principals and reading specialists in schools with exemplary reading programs were asked about the perceived role of the reading specialist. Results indicate that training programs for specialists should include more leadership skills.
February 1, 2003... There is increasing recognition of the importance of reading specialists in developing coherent, inclusive reading programs that meet the needs of all students (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Indeed, the position statement, Teaching All...

Reading comprehension on the Internet: expanding our understanding of reading comprehension to encompass new literacies. (Exploring Literacy on the Internet).
February 1, 2003... The nature of literacy is rapidly changing as new technologies emerge (diSessa," 2000; Dresang & McClelland, 1999; Leu & Kinzer, 2000; Reinking, McKenna, Labbo, & Kieffer, 1998; Tapscott, 1998). "Today, the definition of literacy has expanded...

Nathan: a case study in reader response and Retrospective Miscue Analysis: a study of miscues led to improved reading skill for one young boy.
February 1, 2003... Nathan (pseudonym), a third-grade boy attending a large urban public elementary school in the midwestern United States, was a troubled reader who read at preprimer level based on results from Leslie and Caldwell's (1988) Qualitative Reading...

Phonics instruction: beyond the debate. (Question and Answer).
February 1, 2003... The RTEACHER electronic mailing list (listserv) periodically serves as a forum for teachers to discuss phonics instruction. During these online conversations, members often describe their own instructional practices, post the addresses of...

Literacy development: lessons learned from a pilot project in South Africa: a joint undertaking between Rotary International and the Western Cape Education Department, the pilot literacy development project described here ran for three years in seven primary schools.
February 1, 2003... In this article we describe the outcomes of a pilot project that ran from 1998 through 2000 and involved 79 teachers (grades 1-3) in seven schools. It was designed to predate an expanded Concentrated Language Encounter (CLE) literacy...

Working with William: teaching, learning, and the joint construction of a struggling writer: this thought-provoking description of how classroom settings contribute to struggling writers' problems also includes suggestions about what teachers can do to help.
February 1, 2003... We teachers all have writers who progress little, despite our best efforts. The case we describe here illustrates some possible causes of such lack of progress in writing. Our subject's writing problems are compounded by the interdependent...

The smile of Thomas Tran.
February 1, 2003... It's the smiles I remember. Students come and go, but the memory of each smile is unique and calls up a host of associations. One of my favorites belonged to Thomas Tran, but that particular smile was a long time in coming. Thomas, a...

Imagination.
February 1, 2003... A child's mind, unlike an adult's, can absorb anything and accept any number of new ideas. For this reason, it is not always good to teach only "correct" ideas to children. Scientific understanding is important, but imagination should also be...

Paired books.(Book Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Review)
February 1, 2003... This month's paired books present familiar subjects in an interesting and unique manner. Today's alphabet books rarely represent sound-symbol relationships but rather introduce a concept or theme through information using 26 letters. The...

Three minutes in a child's life a difference makes.
February 1, 2003... It was late October in my sixth-grade year. School was over for the day, and I was heading out the door when Mrs. Wall called out "Clark, will you come over here a minute?" (I answered to my middle name during those years.) She motioned for...