This study examined the opinions of more than 300 primary teachers. The first purpose of the study was to investigate the reported frequency with which teachers used various beginning reading materials (e.g., literature, basals, workbooks, predictable text, leveled text, decodable text, and vocabulary-controlled text). The second purpose of the…

Framed by current concerns about boys' attainment in literacy, this paper investigates the potential of talking books software to support the literacy development of male beginning readers. The study primarily considered whether typically developing boys who showed lower levels of attainment in phonological awareness would show a greater degree of…

This study tested four complementary hypotheses to characterize intrinsic and extrinsic influences on the order with which preschool children learn the names of individual alphabet letters. The hypotheses included: (a) "own-name advantage," which states that children learn those letters earlier which occur in their own names, (b) the…

Previous studies have shown that phonological awareness correlates with children's reading aloud and also adults' literacy experience. More recent research has further suggested that phonological awareness is associated with the processing of spoken language, which is a correlate of reading comprehension. In this paper, I argue that phonological…

This paper describes a school-home reading project that was developed to support culturally and linguistically diverse beginning readers, and offers practical suggestions for starting such a program. First-grade classrooms from 5 Chapter 1 schools in a large suburban school district are participating in the project. Teachers in these classrooms…

A qualitative study followed slow-progress students as they engaged in embedded word studies in their classroom-based literacy activities. Issues addressed were: (1) the ways embedded word studies promoted slower-progress students' word knowledge; (2) how developing word knowledge influenced these students' reading and writing attempts; and (3)…

A study examined an early reading intervention program designed to lead children, identified with low reading readiness at the start of first grade, to an appropriate reading level by the end of a 6-month period. Subjects were students entering first grade in a middle class community in northern Illinois. The problems of low reading readiness were…

Offering detailed, culturally diverse examples of practical applications in real classroom settings, this book provides preservice and inservice elementary school teachers with everything needed to set up workshop environments and procedures that develop children's talk, reading, writing skills, and critical thinking. The book features highly…

A study examined whether reading aloud to young children would have an effect on their reading success in first grade. Subjects, 45 first-grade students in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, were given a questionnaire to be completed by their parents. The three first-grade teachers provided students reading aptitude scores, based on teacher observation and…

Focusing primarily on what parents can do to help children up to 10 years of age with reading, this booklet offers activities designed to lay the foundation for children to become lifelong readers. The first section of the book offers some basic information about parents reading to their children. The second section offers suggestions to guide…

A study compared the oral and written language concepts of preschoolers from low- and middle-income homes. Subjects, 33 4-year-olds from 3 separate Head Start programs and 31 4-year-olds from three different private schools, were administered 9 informal language assessments in the fall and again in the spring. Parents of the subjects were…

Although many educators believe that learning to read and write Mandarin Chinese is not easy (because of the complexities of its characters and grammar), it is common to find voracious and expert young readers in the early elementary school levels in Taiwan. The Chinese educational system is governed by a uniform curriculum and nationalized…

The 38 essays in this book look back at language experience as an educational approach, provide practical classroom applications, and reconceptualize language experience as an overarching education process. Classroom teachers and reading specialists describe strategies in use in a variety of classroom settings and describe ways to integrate…

Reviews of research, studies of early readers, and investigations of emergent literacy uniformly conclude that parents' beliefs, aspirations, and actions affect their children's growth into and embracing of literacy. However, conflicting results call into question the utility of simply correlating race or various socioeconomic factors, such as…

A practicum developed a whole language kindergarten at-home reading program. The target group was 27 sets of parents of children in a kindergarten classroom who volunteered to participate. The objectives were to increase the parents' knowledge of whole language techniques; increase their level of comfort in using whole language techniques at home…