Description
The more than one hundred approaches to initial reading instruction can be grouped under ten headings: basal reader, phonemics, phonemic reading, “linguistics,” total language arts, language-experience, one-to-one sound symbol, individualized reading, early reading, and perceptual discrimination. Although the basal reader approach is used in more than 90 percent of American elementary schools, selected techniques identified with the other approaches can provide alternative and supplementary day-to-day strategies. These borrowed techniques can do much to increase students’ motivation to learn to read: imaginative phonics drill (key pictures, phonics charts, every pupil response, “Soundie” stories, personification), “write and see” workbooks, rebus reading, color clues, word shapes, language experiences, and student-owned books. (RD)
