This article highlights considerations for teachers when selecting and using e-books and e-book applications (apps) with beginning readers during guided and independent reading. A framework for examining e-books and e-book apps is suggested, and several apps and related digital features are described. The article also includes an overview of…

There is a wide range in the educational qualities and overall quality of interactive storybook apps for tablet computers (ebooks). Minimally, ebooks for young children present illustrations on a screen, accompanied by an oral reading of the text. Today's ebooks can also include animation, zooming in and out, musical scores, sound effects,…

Beginning with a brief rationale for selecting quality digital picture book apps for beginning readers, the authors describe the elements of digital picture books and provide a brief review of the instructional benefits of digital picture book use for beginning readers. They then present a detailed taxonomy for selecting quality picture book apps.…

Describes and evaluates "Breakthrough to Literacy," a beginning reading scheme based on the language experience approach and launched in Saskatoon, Canada schools in 1974. (RB)

Describes a reading program that uses a combination of basal readers to teach beginning reading. (RB)

Discusses 11 documents processed into the ERIC system that shed light on the selection of a beginning reading program. (DD)

Describes a summer remedial reading program for first-grade students. Includes discussions of the activities and strategies used to promote comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary development. (FL)

Draws upon research, theory, and experience to support six changes in the way reading comprehension is taught. (FL)

Argues that teachers of beginning reading can incorporate the cloze procedure into ongoing reading programs, and shows how this can be done. (RB)

Suggests that reading programs that attempt to teach reading before children have developed adequate problem solving skills may be responsible for producing children who learn not to read. (DD)

Describes ERIC documents pertaining to the role of parents in preparing their children to read and the ways in which they can help shape and strengthen a school's reading program. (FL)

Describes six criteria for evaluating materials that will be addressed in forthcoming columns: content validity, transfer potential, adaptability/flexibility, amount of reinforcement, quality of directions and instructional language, and bias. Uses this criteria to evaluate "First-Start Read-Along Program 5," a reading series for primary students.…