A teacher-parent recounts how she used labels on grocery items and other advertising formats to help her preschooler gain confidence in beginning reading. (JMB)

Presents two cross-checking activities to help K-3 students learn decoding. The cross-checking involves decoding by using the consonants in a word along with the context. Children learn to decode by thinking about two things simultaneously (what word would make sense in a sentence and the word's letters and sounds). (SM)

The article describes how to teach skills strategically in whole-language classrooms. It discusses differences between skills and strategies and notes how to move from skill to strategy. A section on teaching phonics examines phonics charts and personal phonics booklets; suggests an order for teaching phonics. (SM)

Presents poetry activities to help students develop two important skills--comparing elements and decoding compound words. The first activity has students unravel a list poem and put one together. The second has students explore compound words within a poem. A reproducible list poem is included. (SM)

Presents teacher-tested techniques for making phonics part of helping students learn to read. Suggestions include writing to read, working with storybook text, using techniques that utilize many senses, and making phonics only one part of a balanced reading program. Resources for obtaining phonics materials are included. (SM)

A special section examines the advantages of using big books with young children. One big book author discusses her work, noting the importance of big book reading. Other authors present teacher-tested tips for using big books, titles of big books, and ideas for do-it-yourself big books. (SM)

Presents activities for teaching two basic phonemic awareness tasks to young children who are learning to read. Oral blending exercises help children hear how sounds are put together to make words so they can begin sounding out words independently as they read. Oral segmentation activities help children separate words into sounds so they can build…

Presents some suggestions for nurturing and supporting emergent readers and writers (e.g., recognize drawing as an important step in early literacy, engage children in conversations about their daily experiences). Also presents an interview with two authors on the special literacy needs of students with major instabilities in their lives. (SM)