A simple, but useful, handout given to mothers of young children can greatly increase the likelihood that they will present aspects of emergent literacy in their homes. The concept of emergent literacy states that all literacy learning begins in infancy and proceeds forward from that point, and that all of the literacy skills of oral language,…

One approach to promote partnerships between parents and schools and parents' involvement in a child's literacy development is to instruct parents through a workshop about literacy development and how to develop a portfolio of their child's literacy development reflecting literacy behavior at home. Parents of prekindergarten students in one public…

Representing current thinking about a wide range of issues related to reading motivation, this book offers a look at how to create classroom cultures that foster in students the love of reading. The book is about teachers and the critical role they play in helping children develop into motivated, active, engaged readers who read both for pleasure…

Research supports that drama should be an integral part of the elementary and secondary curriculum. Utilizing drama strategies enriches learning in the reading program, the literature program, and the areas of oral language development, nonverbal communication, vocabulary development, listening skills, thinking skills, and creative writing. Yet,…

What can parents do to guide pupils to achieve well in reading? Parents may look at and discuss picture books with their preschool and kindergarten age children, without pressing them to read. School or public libraries are good sources of free reading materials. Parents must take ample time to read for themselves at home, thus modelling enjoyment…

Based on a pilot program developed in the Los Angeles (California) Public Library, this guide provides the materials and information needed for introducing a "Grandparents and Books" (GAB) program in a public library. The Los Angeles program was designed to bring together the city's elderly population with children who have no one to…

Designed to help parents in their important role as their children's most powerful guide to reading and learning, this book contains directions, guidelines, and activities to build a positive environment and a relationship that promotes learning. Chapter titles are: (1) Helping Children with Reading and Learning; (2) Creating Interest and Positive…

A Massachusetts family literacy project, the Northampton Family Literacy Project, is described, in which adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners enrolled in a community educational center in order to learn English as their children enrolled in a child care program at the local library. Both groups were involved in language activities,…

A practicum was designed to increase the utilization of an elementary school media center whose wealth of materials were seldom checked out or used, and whose facilities were used mostly for fixed library scheduled classes. Moreover, the media center's facilities were unattractive and uninviting to visit. The solution strategies involved…

This practicum was designed to address the need for the intermediate and upper grade level English as a Second Language (ESL) students to become independent learners in the literacy process. The subjects, 13 boys and 3 girls from Pakistan, Philippines, Jordan, Israel, Korea, Turkey, and Thailand were dependent on the teacher when they had…

A program was developed to demonstrate an effective delivery system for providing family-oriented literacy services to homeless parents of young children. By taking the program directly into four bridge or transitional housing sites in Greater Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Literacy Initiative of Goodwill Industries believed that the result would be an…

A 12-month longitudinal study was conducted in Brisbane, Australia, to investigate the interaction that takes place when a parent and young child read together. Parent-child book-reading episodes that took place in the home at the end of the preschool year of 25 randomly selected children and at the end of Year 1 at a State Primary School were…

The eight digests and nine FAST (Focused Access to Selected Topics) annotated bibliographies included in this special collection focus on family involvement--parents and their children working together to learn. The material in the special collection is designed for use by teachers, students, administrators, researchers, policy makers, and…

An experienced teacher, certified in the education of the gifted, designed and implemented a practicum that offered opportunities for enhancing the cultural literacy and creative play of preschool children who received little individual, reading-related attention from their working parents and caregivers. Play that enriched the imaginative…

This report describes the development of a story-reading program called Story Telling and Retelling (STaR), and its effects on the language and comprehension of disadvantaged prekindergarten and kindergarten children. Following an introduction, an initial section describes the development of this program as part of an urban school restructuring…