This study investigated kindergartners' awareness of how they learned to read at home and at school. Children (n=56) from schools using different methods were asked to tap their awareness about learning to read. Parent questionnaires assessed home support. Results indicated that students could describe how they were learning to read at home and at…

Contrasts ways phonics is frequently taught with examples of ways phonics would be taught according to research. Responses to major criticisms of a phonics approach are presented. Research indicates the best reading instruction involves systematically teaching children the most common sound for a select group of letters and letter combinations.…

A developmental model combining both skills and whole language instruction in four phases is offered for literacy development in children with mild handicaps. The four phases, common to literacy development in all children, move from pretend reading, writing, and spelling, to the transitional stage of fluency at approximately a third grade level.…

The predictive validity of SEARCH and of academic achievement tests for identifying children at risk for reading problems was compared, with 668 kindergarten children. The use of various cutoff scores for SEARCH and the application of a 2-factor scoring system resulted in high rates of false negatives and false positives. (Author/JDD)

Finds that a combination of high letter-sound knowledge and print feedback facilitated awareness of phonemes among nonreaders, but awareness of rhymes was not facilitated by high letter-sound knowledge or print feedback. Suggests that the definition of literacy used with bidirectional, causal models of phonological awareness be expanded. (RS)

Describes a year-long project in a first-grade class that established parallel literacy practices at home and in school, including reading books and writing dialog journals. (SR)

Shows that teachers often severely underestimate the literacy abilities of Navajo children. Makes the case for creating school literacy environments that build on the literacy orientation children bring with them from home and that provide opportunities to experience literacy in a wide variety of functional and purposive contexts. (RS)

Describes a five-year longitudinal study of "Reading Recovery," a program in the San Luis (California) Coastal Unified School District, providing tutoring for children struggling with beginning reading. Of 613 participating first graders, 513 successfully completed the program. "Graduates" reached average reading and writing…

Considers the relationship between decoding and sight-word reading. Investigates whether to use the whole-word method or to build decoding skills before introducing sight words. Sets up five goals to address these issues. Concludes that sight-word reading instruction is likely to be successful if decoding skills are firmly established first. (SC)

Addresses past, present, and future issues and trends in beginning reading instruction, tracing the development of a related issue in the context of early-childhood education: developmentally appropriate practice (DAP). Addresses historical changes in reading education and in DAP guidelines, suggesting that reading education and early-childhood…

Investigates how culture might influence the choice and reading of children's texts to children. Describes a two-year, longitudinal, qualitative case study of the storybook experiences of a US-born Chinese girl, describing the social, moral, and literacy practices in her family (which included the girl, her parents, and her grandparents). (SR)

Examines the real-world literacy contexts in which children find themselves. Discusses research at multiple sites over five years looking at how teachers struggle day by day to work out how to acknowledge and build on the language and cultural diversity of the students in their schools. Explores and illustrates four distinct "constructions" of…

Presents two activities based on the poem, "Cat in the Snow," to help beginning readers learn to decode print and develop fluency. The first activity has students look at the poet's words. The second activity has students talk about the poet's language and message. A tear-our sheet offers the poem, "Cat in the Snow." (SM)

A study investigated predictors of individual differences in responsiveness to word reading instruction in 55 typical first-graders and 41 identified as at-risk. A combination of rapid naming speed, letter sound knowledge, and phonemic awareness skill predicted word and nonword reading growth in the at-risk group. Growth modeling increased reading…

Studies by Unsworth and Williams (1988, 1990) compared the textual variation of purpose-written big books with literary texts. Purpose-written big books help children to predict repetitive clauses that realize explicit and simplistic meanings. (Contains six references.) (JP)