The child approaching reading for the first time comes well-equipped with developmental tools to lighten the task. Linguistically speaking, in addition to some decoding skills, the child has a full-blown syntactic system consisting of the basic syntactic forms, though some of the more intricate forms will not be mastered until much later.…

Parents and teachers are encouraged in this paper to provide home and school cognitive science activities to help their preschool-age children develop prereading skills. Many of the activities mentioned could be introduced prior to the age of 3 years and all by the age of 5 years. In general, activities that develop cognitive skills should precede…

Describes the "ALERT" procedure, whereby teachers may combine the language experience approach with the use of radio, television, newspaper, and magazine advertisements in a strategy that is useful for developing critical thinking skills, even in very young students. (ARH)

Focusing on writing as a language process, this booklet describes a framework for writing instruction that has as a major consideration the totality of language. The first section discusses writing as a language process, emphasizing that as children learn to write, they can also learn to listen, speak, and read. The second section focuses on the…

This booklet contains over 35 sample student activities designed by teachers to support the development of prerequisite skills for reading comprehension and to offer opportunities for mastery learning. Activities are suggested in the areas of letter/sound relationships, word recognition, experiential concept development, cognitive concept…

Describes strategies which teachers can model to help their students become cognitively aware of language. Suggests that teachers model writing and reading strategies at the same time they demonstrate word processing functions. (MG)

A collection of essays addresses aspects of the integration of limited-English-speaking students into the regular classroom. The articles include: "A Quality Program for Learners of English as a Second Language" (Jean Handscombe); "I Grow for a Living" (Carole Urzua); "The Classroom: A Good Environment for Language…

Focusing on the development of literacy, this book discusses the teaching of reading and writing through stories, songs, and poetry. It is argued that, to develop literacy, teachers must know what to teach, how to Teach efficiently, and how to assign practices through which children learn. The book is organized into three general parts. The first…