Reading comprehension is a foundational skill that underpins many aspects of learning, communication, problem solving, and personal development. This study investigates the relationship between parents' reading attitudes, early literacy activities and students' reading comprehension as well as examines the influence of early literacy activities as…

This paper outlines the findings of an empirical research study exploring how Early Years Educators (EYEs) support under-threes with their early reading development in England. The data were collected through a mixed methodological approach of an initial survey, five semi-structured interviews and four reflective Zines to explore the experiences…

The transition to school, marked by significant moves towards print literacy, is a crucial school-life milestone that can be both exhilarating and daunting. This case study, extracted from an international, quasi-ecological examination of thriving kindergarten children in transition to school films participants, their families, schools and…

Sparked by the Common Core State Standards, teachers and literacy experts are arguing about the role of a time-honored pillar of English/language arts instruction: classroom activities designed to help students understand what they are about to read. The attacks on--and defenses of--"prereading" are unfolding largely in cyberspace, through online…

PictoPal is the name of a technology-supported intervention designed to foster the development of emergent reading and writing skills in four and five year old children. Following the theoretical underpinnings and a brief description of PictoPal, this article describes how children worked with the technology; how the intervention elicited their…

Reviews "Happily Ever After," a reading readiness program that is designed to help those children who lack many of the concepts and abilities assumed by most readiness programs. (FL)

Parents can help young children learn to read or become better readers. Activities designed to be done at home each evening are suggested to teach and reinforce beginning reading skills. (MT)

Offers guidelines for helping children produce their own alphabet books. (FL)

Offers some suggestions for articulating curricular objectives and activities based on the theoretical principles underlying emergent literacy. Suggests readings for extending and strengthening the knowledge and understanding needed to foster young children's language and literacy. (MG)

This article presents summaries of research on 13 core understandings about learning to read, from "Building a Knowledge Base in Reading" (Jane Braunger and Jan Patricia Lewis). In the article, each core understanding is followed by activity ideas and strategies useful for tutors--these activities were created with one-on-one tutoring in…

Reviews research offering the teacher a different perspective from which to view beginning reading and provides a strong justification for activities normally thought to be less than academic. (Author/MP)

Establishes a developmental perspective for using caption books (picture books with short language captions closely related to simple pictures), then details how the books can be used in the classroom. (FL)

Describes an instructional technique for expanding children's vocabulary that embodies the principle that learning involves relating new experiences to what is already known. (FL)

Examples of comprehension activities are presented in the areas of: context clues, literal comprehension, recall of details, main ideas, maps and charts, interpretive comprehension, sequence, and evaluative comprehension. This article is one of four in this issue comprising the Teacher's Reading Seminar 1979. (SJL)

Describes two strategies (Yes/No...Why? and It Reminds Me Of...) that provide young or poor readers with the prerequisite background knowledge for interpreting a passage. States that these strategies can be used with all types of reading materials and can also be used with nonreaders. (MG)