Suggests ways that the classroom teacher can convey to students through learning experiences their role as readers. (RS)

Investigates whether perceptions of literacy acquisition held by parents of young children are consistent with an emergent literacy model. Finds the following: some high-literate parents held traditional assumptions about literacy; parents supported some aspects of emergent literacy much more than they did others; and some parents retained…

An inventory collected responses from 63 adult beginning readers and 41 proficient readers regarding beliefs, feelings, and behaviors about consumer, social context, work-related, at-home, and recreational reading. Many views of the two groups were similar, although beginners disliked reading complex materials and reading aloud, do not read at…

Principles to guide practice for adult beginning reading are (1) a positive rapport; (2) self-revelation; (3) a partnership approach to learning; (4) celebration of success; (5) relevant material; (6) continuous student assessment; (7) reinforcement of literacy skills; (8) mutual respect; (9) a philosophy of reading; and (10) a risk-taking…

Reviews approximately 15 years of exploration of children's emergent writing and the transition into conventional writing, covering the period from infancy through first grade. Illustrates a progression from descriptions of children's proficiencies to collaborations between classroom- and university-based educators that are aimed at increasing…

Presents strategies teachers might use to assess and promote beginning readers' phonemic awareness, a factor shown to be strongly linked to the successful acquisition of reading ability. (MG)

Reports early findings from a longitudinal study of low socioeconomic status urban African-American kindergarten/first-grade children's emergent readings of literature. Finds that these children showed similar developmental patterns to those in previous studies, but they initially declared vehemently that they could not read. (RS)

Synthesizes research on the basic processes and instructional factors that influence literacy development. Points out patterns of agreement and disagreement among literacy scholars and practitioners. Presents an agenda for reading research of the future. (RS)

This article reviews the literature on the importance of phonological awareness within the context of language/literacy learning and discusses the developmental continuum of phoneme awareness skills. Specific techniques are suggested to guide the speech-language pathologist in the assessment of phonological awareness skills. (Author/DB)

Comparison of the individual reading strategies of 26 severely impaired developmental dyslexics and 26 nonhandicapped readers found a distribution of skills and strategies over a continuum in both groups. Dyslexic students were specifically impaired in phonological processing, and half of them employed more whole-word oriented strategies than the…

Presents scenarios from a kindergarten classroom in which dramatization is used extensively in conjunction with nonfiction books. Shows how the children acted out topics that ranged from the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving to the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., showing that they were able to develop rich representations of nonfiction materials.…

Concludes children benefit from teacher training in integrating environmental print into the curriculum; logos selected for classroom use should come from children's immediate environment; instruction should include experiences with manuscript forms of the logos; and children who are encouraged to bring to class examples of environmental print…

Describes a technique for helping children learn the names of the letters of the alphabet. In the Alphabet Mnemonic System, each alphabet letter is assigned a phrase that will cue the learner to recall the name of the letter. A table is provided of the mnemonic alphabet cues. (CR)

Describes letterbox lessons in which children learn the alphabetic code, spelling words by placing letters in boxes that show the number of phonemes in words, and later reading what they have spelled. Discusses materials, how to teach a letterbox lesson, and effectiveness of these lessons. (SR)

Argues that deep coding skills must and can be introduced, taught, practiced, and reinforced within contexts meaningful to students. Shows how teachers can provide these meaningful educational contexts within which decoding strategies make sense to emerging readers. (SR)