Children are ready to write before they are ready to read; thus reading instruction should be an outgrowth of abilities children develop through inventing their own words. This gives children practice with the more concrete activities of word composition before they undertake the relatively abstract task of reading. Writing exercises may be given…

The purpose of this study is to show that children go through writing stages while learning to write. Understanding these stages can help children become more effective writers in expressing feelings, memories, and concerns to gain recognition with themselves and others. A literature review examined stages of writing and long-term results from…

A study investigated reading performance in one dimension of the language experience approach--the dictation of a story to accompany a wordless picture book. A miscue analysis procedure was used to describe the strategies and miscues evidenced by eight first grade beginning readers while reading a basal text story and while reading a dictated…

Noting that the idea of reading as a natural language communication process has been well established by research, this paper identifies learning strategies and suggests teaching methods for developing the young child's awareness of the communication nature of reading. The paper concludes that learning strategies based on imitation, drawing, and…

Argues that "kid watching," the model of the successful reader, story schema, predictable materials, language experience, and supportive writing are all indicators of the return to common sense in reading education. (FL)

This report summarizes the results of three studies concerning the Reading Recovery or Descubriendo la Lectura program with first-grade California students. Studies were conducted using state-wide data obtained during 1993-94 programs to determine if the program was an effective intervention for children with difficulty in learning to read. The…

Children will meet one less obstacle to making the transition from spoken to written fluency in language if, during the transition period, they experience written language that corresponds structurally to their spoken language patterns. Familiar children's folksongs, because they contain some of the structure of children's oral language, provide…

In order to document the self-directed, spontaneous growth in literary output of a six-year-old child, her writings during a one month period were collected and compiled. It was discovered that the child used writing to organize knowledge about the environment and the operations of print, to maintain personal relations, to establish impersonal or…

Videotapes have proven useful in studying children's early classroom writing experiences, capturing and preserving the contextual integrity of the writing situation in a way that would be nearly impossible to do in words. Because the tapes can be played over and over again, it is possible to extract meanings from the situation that might otherwise…

Examines the relationship between story-telling and children's construction of meaning. Includes transcripts of children's discussions of a story involving Vietnamese refugee children. Maintains that children, especially when given encouraging contexts, can construct and discover meaningful insights. Discusses the role of the teacher in this…