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…

Draws a suggested framework for beginning reading instruction from psycholinguistic insights into the reading process. (DD)

In order to have both fluent reading and good comprehension, the student must be brought beyond accuracy to automaticity in decoding. (JH)

Irreverently examines Rudolph Flesch's theories for teaching a child to read "properly." Alternatives to Flesch's method are also given. (HTH)

Discusses how patterned reading materials may be used in initial reading to help students use their semantic and syntactic knowledge to predict meaning. (DD)

Considers whether dramatic play with toys would be as important for beginning readers and whether it could be used to support their story writing. Discusses the introduction of toys to the writers' workshop. Considers how to reflect on the physical world as a source for story ideas. (SG)

Recounts the author's experiences as a 2-year-old Elvis Presley fan who learned how to recognize, retrieve, and play a large number of his favorite 45 rpm recordings. (RS)

Considers solutions to beginning readers' problems with decoding, syntax, semantics, text organization, and differences between spoken and written language. (DD)

Reviews recent innovations in language arts instruction and provides lists of materials children read and books children might make. (DD)

Explores the gap between adult writers and children readers and examines some misconceptions about writing for children. (HTH)