This article introduces a way of seeing miscue analysis data through a "spider chart", a readily available digital graphing tool that provides an effective way to visually represent readers' complex coordination of interrelated cueing systems. A spider chart is a standard feature in recent spreadsheet software that puts a new spin on miscue…

This article is a discussion of the importance of using student resistance to inform and change teacher practice. The authors relate two narratives of practice, one of which takes place in a constructivist second-grade classroom in Ontario, and a second that takes place in a preservice classroom in California. In the first, a student uses the…

In this article, the authors explore a young child's lived experience of discipline and play with/in a mandated balanced literacy curriculum. Mandating balanced literacy presents an interesting case of disciplining literacy because it is rooted in the progressive tradition of meaning-and-process pedagogies. As such, it avoids the most obvious…

NCLB and Reading First are negotiated in implementing beginning reading instruction. The article describes and analyzes how two critical conditions for creating opportunity--access to qualified teachers and rigorous academic curriculum--are met by examining the enactment and adaptation of a prescriptive core reading program disproportionately…

Ken Goodman and Frank Smith met for the first time in 1970, though they had each been studying and writing, separately, about the reading process for several years prior to that. They commemorated the occasion by collaborating on an article, On the Psycholinguistic Method of Teaching Reading which appeared soon after in The Elementary School…

Reviews the typical approach (synthetic phonics) to teaching reading in Finland. Suggests that teachers in English-speaking countries can learn from problems Finnish teachers face and vice versa. Finds that, despite a highly regular writing system, Finnish teachers find that a heavy phonics emphasis does not solve their reading instruction…

Describes a first grade beginning literacy program in which the author and the teacher have collaborated to create a balanced approach to instruction. (MG)

Describes word-learning activities for first graders, devised to help at-risk readers make discoveries about the alphabetic system. Discusses why these discoveries are important for students' progress in learning to read and spell. (SR)

Describes the chief characteristics of the Success for All program and reports some results of its effects on beginning readers and writers. Concludes that reading failure is fundamentally preventable for nearly all children, regardless of home background. (MG)

Describes the modification in one kindergarten class of Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) to Sustained Loud Reading (SLR). Describes children's excited interactions with and sharing of books. (SR)

Offers guidelines for using literature in the primary classroom. Shares the experiences of first graders with the book "Owl Moon." Notes that it is important to retain the essence of the story--to demonstrate for young readers how readers connect with books. (MG)

Investigates how culture might influence the choice and reading of children's texts to children. Describes a two-year, longitudinal, qualitative case study of the storybook experiences of a US-born Chinese girl, describing the social, moral, and literacy practices in her family (which included the girl, her parents, and her grandparents). (SR)