First-Grade Reading Instruction and Modality Preference

Abstract

The Elementary School Journal Volume 80, Number 2 ? 1979 by The University of Chicago 001 3-598480/8002-0005$00.75 One goal of every first-grade teacher is to help children develop adequate reading skills. To prevent failure at the initial stages of reading, educators have varied methods, materials, and time of beginning instruction. Yet, whatever method has been tried, some children have learned to read, and others have failed. According to one point of view, children need to develop systematic wordrecognition skills during the early stages of reading. Two methods are popular for teaching word-recognition. In one method, children are taught to recognize words as wholes. In the other method, children are taught symbol-sound associations that allow students to sound out words. However, with both methods some children are learning to read, but others are failing. It appeared that it would be helpful to try to predict under which approach, whole-word or phonics, a particular child might succeed. Then, at the initial stages a child could be matched with the method