Instead of merely correlating the amount of time a child is read to with gross measures of language development or reading achievement, researchers need to examine closely, through naturalistic studies, the underlying construction and organization of story book reading events between parent and child. The notion of scaffolding, in which the adult…

A child's sense of involvement in story and desire to meaningfully experience literature must be sustained and promoted if the problem of "literacy" is to be resolved. Four activities, designed as a series of stages, can enhance the literary experience of children. The first activity is reading to children--exposing them to the language…

This guide was developed for parents of young children to help them develop their child's readiness to learn to read and to help them teach beginning reading skills to their child. Background information on the reading process and a quiz entitled, "are you preparing your child to read?" are presented. Activities are suggested for reading…

To make sense of unknown words encountered in their reading, children must relate what they read to their prior knowledge. It is important to use children's language in early reading instruction, through the use of language experience stories that provide children with a natural transition from oral to written language. Nursery rhymes may also be…

Fourteen strategies a hard-of-hearing mother uses while reading a book with her hard-of-hearing preschool son are observed. These strategies are grouped in four large categories: (1) confirmation of child's understanding; (2) focusing attention on the book and its content; (3) specific language input; (4) concept development. (Author/LMO)

Describes how four teachers use reading as an integral part of their writing instruction. (SRT)

Argues that reading aloud to teenagers can provide some of the same benefits that lap reading gives to younger children. (FL)

"Between the Lions" is a Public Broadcasting System program promoting literacy for children ages 4 through 7 years combining state-of-the-art puppetry, animation, live action, and music to achieve its mission of helping young children learn to read. This guide, in English- and Spanish-language versions, provides literacy activities for…

The electronic storybook may be one tool that can simulate the read aloud story by a human reader. If the electronic story can serve to provide some of the elements derived from a human book reading experience, then time spent with these electronic stories can give children some building blocks that will aid in their literacy acquisition. A study…

This applied dissertation was designed to encourage resource students to read more books for pleasure. Resource students in the writer's high school did not read many books for pleasure. Students had short attention spans and found it difficult to finish school assignments without encouragement. They also found reading difficult and often said…

This booklet presents many examples of instructional activities that occur on a daily basis on the campuses of Spotlight Schools, schools identified by the Texas Education Agency as having student populations that reflect a diversity of ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds, and demonstrate that essentially all children can become readers. It is…

This brief report presents information on the extent to which families are engaged in literacy activities with their 3- to 5-year-olds who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten. It also presents information on signs of emerging literacy, such as whether children recognize letters, can write their own names, or read or pretend to read. The report…

Noting that reading aloud to preschool children significantly influences their reading development, this master's thesis examines the many benefits from reading aloud to preschoolers. The thesis reviews research indicating that when parents read aloud, they help their children learn vocabulary, complex sentence structure, and story structure.…

A study examined the effectiveness of specific teaching strategies in the reading curriculum that would help underachieving first-grade students meet reading standards by the end of the school year. Subjects, 6 underachieving students, were given the Basic Phonics Skills Test (BPST), the Results high frequency word list, and the Results reading…

This two-volume notebook is part of a three-volume set containing strategies developed by experienced adult basic education (ABE) teachers in response to learning problems observed in their classrooms. Instructions on how to use the notebook with students with learning disabilities (LD) begin each volume. Volume 1 consists of these seven sections:…