INDEX

Comprehension

• READING COMPREHENSION: Constructing vs. Extracting Meaning

Decodable Text
Everyone is talking about it but what exactly is it?  Decodable text is text that can be decoded or sounded out based on what the student has already been taught. 100% decodable text contains only those speech sound-letter correspondences that have already been taught.  Unlike the stories in whole-language programs, decodable stories are not predictable or repetitive.

• The Usefulness of Pseudowords
• DECODABLE READERS - This article by Dolores Hiskes, just published on her web site, discusses decodable reading practice, why it is an important adjunct to teaching reading, and when it should be introduced. 6/03
• Decodable Words Versus Predictable Text
• Decodable Words in Reading Textbooks: Why They Are Imperative
• Decodable Text Available Through This Site:  Stories Based on Phonics After reading the description, if you wish to order scroll to the top of the page to find the online order form.
• Decodable Text Available Through a Link to This Site: Fly Leaf Publishing.

History of Reading Instruction

• Don't Read, Don't Tell
• Illiteracy: An Incurable Disease or Education Malpractice?
• The Century of Miseducation of American Teachers

Illiteracy and Crime

• Link between Illiteracy and Crime?

Phonics Instruction

Phonemic Awareness

• Help your child develop phonemic awareness - 6/2005.
• Children are best taught how to read by learning sounds of letters
• "Onsets and Rimes": Their Relation to Effective Phonics Information
• The Best Way to Get Children Ready to Read: Letters and Phonemic Awareness

Remedial Education

• Neural deficits in children with dyslexia ameliorated by behavioral remediation: Evidence from functional MRI
• Special Education Confidential - Reason, 12/02
• "Behavioral Drugs in Schools: Questions and Concerns"
  U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Hearing 9/29/2000 Dr. Fred Baughman, Neurologist, El Cajon, CA
  Dr. Peter Breggin, Psychiatrist, Center for the Study of Psychiatry & Psychology, Bethesda, MD
• Preventing Reading Difficulties - Letter to the editor of the Circleville Herald by Stephanie Metzger, Instructional Resources Consultant Central Ohio Special Education Regional Resource Center (COSERRC) 1/16/01
• The Trillion-Dollar Sham in Federal Remedial Education
• When A Child Is Labeled Dyslexic
• What Every Parent Needs to Know About Attention Deficit Disorder
• Medical Malpractice and Its Reading Instruction Analogy
• Attention Deficit Disorder & Poor Reading Instruction: Is There a Connection?

Spelling
Traditional spelling rules have been abandoned in many spelling programs sweeping the nation. In the Rebecca Sitton program, children use cheat sheets during "tests" to ensure success.

• A Critique of Inventive Spelling
• Sample of Invented Spelling
• Rebecca Sitton Spelling Program Abandons Rules
  
• Rebecca Sitton Spelling Program Contradicts Scientific Research
• 71 Revised "Orton" Phonograms for Correct Spelling

Statistics

• The American Literacy Tragedy --11/02
• The National Assessment of
  Educational Progress (NAEP) 2000
  This report presents results of the NAEP 2000 reading assessment at grade 4 and makes comparisons to fourth-grade reading performance on previous NAEP assessments. Performance results are also presented by percentile distribution as well as by demographic subgroups, including race/ethnicity, gender, region of the country, type of location, type of school, and eligibility for the free/reduced-price lunch program. The report also includes the full text of a reading passage, sample test questions, and examples of student responses.
  View the report.
• The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998
  NAEP, a congressionally mandated project of the National Center for Education Statistics, the U.S. Department of Education, is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. The most recent assessment was done in 1998. To order a copy via the Internet go to www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs.html. To browse or download a copy go to www.nces.ed.gov/naep.

Taking Action

• A Strategy for the Public to Expose and Oust Unsubstantiated Reading Teaching Practices
• Phonics or Whole Language: A Parent's Perspective
• Fire Storm How One Family Fought the System and Won!, by Kim Sadler
• A Time for Action: Taking Back Our Schools
  How To Restore Phonics Instruction In Your Community, by Kim Sadler
• Testimony and Power Point Presentation - "The Impact of Belief"—Bob Sweet squares off with Ken Goodman
• What To Do When You're Told: We Do Teach Phonics
• Leslie, Michigan Parents Find a Way
• Leslie, Michigan Parents' Solution Works!

Teacher Education

• 2008 Schedule for the Center for Development and Learning's "Plain Talk About Reading Institute"
• Study says teacher training is chaotic - 9/18/06
  Aspiring teachers emerge from college woefully unprepared for their jobs, according to a study that depicts most teacher education programs as deeply flawed.
• Why Reading Teachers Are Not Trained to Use a Research-Based Pedagogy: Is Institutional Reform Possible? - October 2005
• What Principals Need to Know About Reading - The 20 million school-age children suffering from reading failure could be reduced by two-thirds with early identification, prevention, and intervention. NAESP Principal, Nov./Dec. 2003
• Ed Schools in Crisis
• Remarks by Mrs. Bush to House Education and Workforce Committee - 3/14/02
• Preschool Reading Teachers Misinformed by a Federally-Funded Agency
• Training Teachers: The Key to Helping America Read
  
• The Reading Excellence Act: A Breakthrough for Reading Teacher Training
• The Missing Foundation in Teacher Education, by Louisa Cook Moats, Ph.D

Testing

• Why Hide SAT Data? - 8/30/2006
• The Dependability of Standardized Reading Tests
  by Dr. Patrick Groff
• Accountability for Effective Reading Instruction
  by Dr. Patrick Groff

Whole Language
Whole language advocates believe that children learn to read naturally, just like they learned to speak. Nothing could be further from the truth. If this were true, all talkers would be readers! Under these titles, scientifically unproven and erroneous teaching practices that are part of the whole language teaching strategy are examined in the light of scientific research.

• Chicken Pox and Whole Language
  —Commentary by Joy Sweet, NRRF Executive Director
  (originally published March 2002; republished in light of the current debate about reauthorization of Reading First)
      The Abuse Goes On This e-mail, presents most poignantly and articulately exactly what the article, "Chicken Pox and Whole Language", sought to convey.
• Guided Reading, Whole Language Style
• Can Whole Language and DISEC Teaching of Phonics Be Combined?
• Whole Language's Faulty Foundation
  
• Auditory Versus Visual Styles of Learning to Read: A False Dichotomy
  
• The "Balanced" Reading Program Hoax
  
• Children's Use of Context Cues Remains Unverified
  
• Emergent Literacy: A Code Word for Whole Language
  
• Whole Language vs. Experimental Research Approach to Reading Development
  
• Teaching Children to Memorize Words: An Unnecessary Evil
• Whole Language's Use of Context Cues

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