Two teachers engage in assessment discussions based on an analytical rubric to assess an ELL student's writing. Discourse analysis methods were used to analyze recorded/transcribed assessments and discussions. The teachers focused on descriptors for the rubric's lowest scores, neglecting their own knowledge and experience with English learners. As…

Letras y Arte: Literacy and Art, is a summer course that pairs college students and children from a Latino neighborhood for literacy and art learning. Started five years ago, Letras y Arte provides opportunities in four areas: (1) literacy opportunities that foster distinctive identities and voice; (2) immersion in a broad view of literacy that…

Describes the inspiration, planning, and implementation of the Poetry Project, a nine-week unit designed to immerse first and second grade children in the reading and writing of poetry. Notes that the project helped the students bring together oral and written language. (RS)

Suggests that illustrations can serve as invitations to enjoy and to ponder the images in poetry. Notes that, when poetry is read aloud to children, they should also have the opportunity to view and discuss the accompanying illustrations. Discusses how a variety of poetry books for children incorporate illustrations. (RS)

Notes that two texts were being read simultaneously as a teacher educator read aloud to other teachers in a summer seminar--Cynthia Rylant's "Missing May" and the experience of reading "Missing May." Notes that the teachers made meaning from both texts, working together to shape the teachers into a community because they had…

Two first-grade teachers and a university researcher study children's inquiry-oriented responses to literature to better understand how children's experiences during read-alouds (and in related, later conversations) help them enlist others in their efforts to make sense of race. The authors argue teachers should be making spaces for children's…

A "Personalized Contract Book Program," modeled on the way that competent readers learn to read at home, provided a nonpressured environment that fostered students' reading development. (DD)

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)

This case study of a struggling reader suggests that learning to read is not necessarily about using the right program, but rather about making the right connection. This case describes how Ashley, a child with special needs, came to literacy in her own way in the company of Barbara Park's fictional character, Junie B. Jones, a girl about her age…

Describes a read-aloud program, "Language to Literacy," now used in several Texas school districts. Describes how language charts are used to record ideas from stories, help recall other stories, and notice similarities and differences among stories. (MG)

Describes a teacher's year-long effort to help a second grader who would not listen to stories being read aloud understand the purpose of storybook reading. Relates her efforts as a teacher-researcher to understand beliefs about reading. Examines story time for what is says about educational equity, and what such classroom rituals may deny some…

This article describes an exploration of activities that can encourage students to think more critically about the influences on their gender and identity. Using read aloud, literature circles, and mini-lessons rooted in the students' experiences, the author's successes and failures are explored within a context where students are placed at the…

Playing the Play describes the experiences of a storyteller and teacher of literature who created a literature-based literacy program at Concourse House, a homeless shelter in Bronx, New York, for women and their young children. This program is based on the belief that pleasure is the primary reason children want to learn to read, and that where…

Discusses how New York librarians and early childhood educators work together to get preschool children off to the right start in language and literacy. Describes how programs through libraries and involving parents, teachers and librarians can give children a better chance to grow up literate and love books. (MG)