LEARNING TO READ
Twenty-nine percent of the students learn to read in phonics programs, 31 percent in "eclectic'' programs, 4 percent by using "sight words,'' and 4 percent through "language experience''; teachers said they did not know how the remaining third of their students learn to read.
Twenty-seven percent of the students receive 30 minutes of reading instruction a day, 54 percent receive 60 minutes, and 19 percent receive 90 minutes or more.
Seventy-nine percent of the students are assigned to reading groups on the basis of ability; 15 percent have teachers who don't form groups at all.
Fifty percent of the students receive daily help on comprehension skills, 28 percent on oral reading, 28 percent on word-attack skills, and 40 percent on vocabulary.
According to the teachers, 12 percent of the students talk with each other daily in pairs or small groups about what they read, while 28 percent rarely or never do; 13 percent write each day about what they read, while 11 percent rarely or never do; 57 percent complete reading workbooks or skill-sheet assignments daily, while 1 percent rarely or never do; and 57 percent have teachers who read aloud to them each day, while 4 percent have teachers who rarely or never do.
The teachers said that 55 percent of students are given time each day to read books that they chose themselves, while 5 percent are rarely or never given time to do so. But only 32 percent of the students questioned said their teachers ask them each day to read a book of their own choice, and 31 percent said their teachers never do.
Forty-five percent of the students are in classes where all the students use the same reading book, 41 percent are in classes where different levels of the same basal series are used, 9 percent are in classes where more than one basal series is used to meet the needs of the different students, and 5 percent are in classes where other kinds of books or materials are used to teach reading.
Seventy-six percent of the students are in classes where children's trade books are available; 58 have access in the classroom to children's newspapers and/or magazines, 51 percent to reading kits, and 35 percent to microcomputers or terminals; and 23 percent are in classrooms where only one or none of the above resources is available.