Theory and Practice of Early Reading

First Published in 1979. These volumes explore the range and depth of our theoretical and practical knowledge about early reading instruction. Contributors-psychologists, linguists, instructional designers, reading and special education experts were asked to address three questions: (1) What is the nature of skilled reading? (2) How is reading skill acquired? (3) What do the nature of skilled reading and the process of acquiring reading skill jointly suggest for reading instruction? This is Volume I of a collection of essays looking at topics such as reading stages, coding and comprehension skills, word recognition, language skills, instruction and teaching theories and an analysis of reading two beginning reading programs.

Lauren B. Resnick University of Pittsburgh, Phyllis A. Weaver Harvard University

Preface, The Theory and Practice of Early Reading: An Introduction, PART I: WORD RECOGNITION, 1. The Great Debate: Ten Years Later, With a Modest Proposal for Reading Stages, 2. Coding and Comprehension in Skilled Reading and Implications for Reading Instruction, 3. The Role of Orthographic Regularity In Word Recognition, 4. Dysfunctions In Reading Disability: There's More than Meets the Eye, PART II: LANGUAGE, 5. Learning to Read Is Natural, 6. Discourse Comprehension and Early Reading, 7. The Mismatch of Child Language and School Language: Implications of Beginning Reading Instruction, 8. Applications of the Audread Model to Reading Evaluation and Instruction, PART III: INSTRUCTION, 9. Teaching Reading to Learning Disabled and Other Hard-To-Teach Children, 10. Analysis of Behavior In Reading Instruction, 11. An Analysis of Two Beginning Reading Programs: Some Facts and Some Opinions, PART IV: DISCUSSION, 12. Concerning the Marriage of Research and Practice In Beginning Reading Instruction, 13. Applying Theories and Theorizing about Applications, 14. How the Mind Works When Reading: Describing Elephants No One Has Ever Seen, 15. Theory and Practice of Beginning Reading: A View From the Back of the Bus, Author Index, Subject Index