Noting that parents are their children's first and most important teachers, this digest provides suggestions and recommends resources to help parents become involved in their children's literacy development. The digest discusses visiting the public library; reading aloud and modeling reading; playing with children; listening to children read;…

The improvement of reading comprehension skills in a target group of at-risk students in the second grade of a North Florida school was achieved through the implementation strategies of parental involvement and collaborative learning. At-home parent-child literacy interactions increased and parents became active role models in a Parent as Readers…

Stressing the need for activities that are amusing, useful, and fun, this paper outlines a family literacy project that provides parents preparing for the General Education Development (GED) test with literacy activities they can do with their children at home. The paper explains that the project was developed for participants of the Indiana…

Stressing that reading aloud to children is the single most important way to help children get ready to read and write, this brochure offers ideas for encouraging preschoolers to experiment with writing, for motivating school-age children to write more, and for involving the whole family in writing at home. The brochure also suggests ways to…

Researchers in the field of emergent literacy have been watching young children and find that they have a natural interest in print. Many researchers have documented stages of writing and spelling and have illustrated that children can learn to read and write as naturally as they can learn to speak, given an appropriate print environment. Writing…

Designed for use in preschool and early elementary school classrooms, this collection of eight American Indian legends provides patterns for making feltboard cutouts of their characters and props to be used in story telling activities. Seven of the legends originate with the Hupa, Karuk, or Yurok Indians of northwestern California and one is from…

This guide describes the curriculum for the Children's Literature Course at the New Futures School, a high school for pregnant and parenting teens. In addition to teaching the students about good literature which is written for children, one of the main objectives of the course is to convince teen parents of the importance of reading aloud to…

A study examined the practitioner's perspective of literature and how literature is being used in the classroom. Teachers, librarians, and administrators at a suburban school serving over 700 children from kindergarten through fifth grade were interviewed, and professional journals directed toward practitioners, published curriculum guides, and…

A study was conducted to: (1) gather data which would permit researchers to describe the teaching behaviors and language characteristics of parents during literacy events with their children; (2) analyze these data for positive or negative influences of parents' oral language on their children's participation in the reading/writing activities; and…

The Parent and Children Together (PACT) project, developed by the Arkansas Valley and High Plain Regional Library Services in Colorado, is aimed at promoting lifelong interest in reading among today's children. PACT services include: (1) sponsoring workshops that will train librarians and volunteers to plan and present parents' programs; (2)…

Noting that parents have considerable influence on their children's learning during the process of general socialization, this paper reviews literature from primary and post primary schools about involving parents with their children's reading development. Following an introduction which summarizes the pertinent literature, the first section…

Intended for both parents and teachers, this handbook promotes reading aloud as a way to stimulate students' interest in reading and to improve their reading achievement. After an introduction and first chapter that stress the value of reading aloud, the book's second chapter explains when to begin reading aloud to children. The following three…

One way to help the solitary student shape his or her ideas in writing is to arrange for the high school writing teacher to practice Peter Elbow's "believing game." This can be accomplished through a conference in which teachers bring drafts of some piece of writing they would like to work on. The heart of the conference begins as the…

The literature review reported in this paper was conducted to increase an awareness of the positive effects that parents can have on their children's reading progress. The 36 annotations resulting from the review are organized under the following categories: (1) parental factors influencing reading development in children, including the effects of…

Even young children can be encouraged to write through the use of individual communication, group discussions, and activities that involve rhythms and music. Such activities create a classroom of children who feel comfortable and happy, who share a rapport with their peers and others throughout the school building, and who feel free to express…