This book provides an efficient framework for introducing pre-kindergartners and kindergartners to letter-sounds while concurrently promoting reading and writing. The classroom-friendly framework takes letter-sound instruction to a new level by: promoting learning for kindergarten of all ability levels--from the student just learning what sound…

Volunteer tutors can make a difference in the reading skills and the lives of young children. This comprehensive tutorial manual has been developed from the Book Buddies Program of Charlottesville, Virginia, the first large-scale model to mobilize hundreds of community volunteers in an alternative of one-on-one intervention for children at risk…

Hannah is a Pacific island grade 1 teacher in a local village school. She teaches in her native Pacific language and has established a 90-minute daily literacy block in which she focuses on literacy-related activities. As Hannah begins to prepare for the year and map out her ideas, she is aware of the need to gather basic information on each of…

The purpose of this study was to determine the significance of teaching phonological awareness directly in the classroom. Student samples were conducted of both special education and general education students. Teacher interviews and observations were also used in this process. This research was conducted in an elementary school with approximately…

To a young child just learning to read, the world of books and stories is like a big playground waiting to be explored. Children between the ages of four and six usually start to recognize some words on a page. There are many things parents can do to help their children grow as readers. Parents can support their child's reading by being patient,…

This report provides a summary of the preliminary investigations conducted by the Early Literacy Workgroup in Maine's schools, and is designed to serve the following purposes: articulate a set of interrelated, common characteristics of successful literacy programs; extend to schools an invitation to dialogue about effective literacy practices and…

A central theme in this book is that there are many paths to literacy. The materials in this guidebook are intended to encourage those involved in teaching reading and writing to engage in dialogue and reflection with colleagues, to know their students well, to examine their own experiences and beliefs, and to generate and seek answers to their…

This booklet presents suggestions for things people can do to help meet the America Reads Challenge of having all children read well and independently by the end of third grade. One of the ways to meet this challenge is through the research-based community reading initiative, called READ*WRITE*NOW!, which encourages students to read and write at…

This paper considers reading research carried out by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The paper presents a synthesis of this research on reading. It begins with a note about the NICHD research program and a discussion of how the program is different from other studies of reading. It then discusses a new…

For the young child, the onset of speech and language acquisition is a milestone to be expected somewhere between 10-30 months of age. Behaviors exhibited by the people in the child's environment both before and after the onset of speech have infinitely more impact upon language learning--and eventually all learning--than the onset of the event…

There are continuing debates about the best approach to teaching reading--phonics or whole language. The most valuable link to learning to read is phonological or phonemic awareness, as soon as the alphabetic system is mastered. After phonemic awareness has been established, students enter the orthographic stage where they can process longer…

This unit explores elements of wonder, distortion, fantasy, and whimsy in "The Nursery 'Alice,'" Lewis Carroll's adaptation for younger readers of his beloved classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." In its 6 lessons, students will first explore their concepts about Wonderland, and then listen to the opening chapters of the…

This book seeks to help teachers discover approaches and techniques that fit their particular teaching styles and their teaching situations. The book's aim is to present as fairly, completely, and clearly as possible the major approaches and techniques that research and practice have indicated to be successful. The book also presents the theories…

This lesson plan teaches students about the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. Students listen to a brief biography, view photographs of the March on Washington, hear a portion of King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and discuss what King's words mean to them. Finally, they will create picture books about their own dreams of freedom for…

In today's schools, the additional time demanded by administrators and parents for literacy instruction of school beginners has almost eliminated content area instruction in science and social studies and has reduced instruction in math. This paper shows how to present such instruction in content areas to emergent readers without sacrificing…