The context and preliminary results of an ongoing research project involving parents in the University of Sheffield's (English) Early Literacy Development Project are described. The project developed programs involving at-home work with parents and in-school work for families with preschool children. Initial discussion identified four lines of…

This report explains why reading story books to young children (an activity assumed to help in the acquisition of literacy, although there is no unambiguous evidence in support of this assumption) is likely to be important and reviews the evidence about the role it might play in literacy development. The first section of the report examines…

Using extensive data gathered from a follow-up study on an early reading program which tested the reading competence of high school seniors who had received formal beginning reading instruction in kindergarten, an ancillary study investigated the effects of early formal reading instruction on bilingual students. Three of the dependent variables…

Defining reading as a dynamic, interactive process involving the reader in constructing meaning, this guide for the elementary and secondary curriculum was designed to facilitate effective and creative decision making by teachers for (1) integrating reading and writing across the curriculum, (2) developing readers who can independently apply…

Recent research suggests that an understanding of a simple children's story can demand sophisticated knowledge of concepts, social life, and literary forms. A well-written story for beginning readers will relate goal-directed event sequences in a coherent and relatively complete form, but understanding the story involves processes extending beyond…

Twenty-four beginning readers participated in a study of the effectiveness of cued learning. The study was carried out in two phases--a letter-learning phase and a word-learning phase. The children were taught one at a time by the same teacher over a four-year period. During the word-learning phase, one fourth of the children used a vowels-only…

A study examined the importance of two phonological encoding procedures (addressed phonology and assembled phonology) in children who are learning to read and how the relative importance of these two procedures might change over the age range from six to eight. Subjects, 72 fifth, fourth, and third grade students from two inner London (England)…

This paper presents an informal account of two studies concerned with the significant positive effect which students reading to a parent or other adult has on the students' reading performance. The paper describes the first study, conducted between 1975/76 and 1978/79 in London, in which over 2000 multiracial, working class children took books…

Underlying virtually all of the basal reading series available in the United States today is the assumption that learning to read is a skill-by-skill and word-by-word process. This part-to-whole approach to teaching reading is based on principles of behavioral psychology and "scientific management" developed a half century ago and treats…

A study examined whether illustrations that must be attended to in order to make sense of a text hinder decoding by encouraging dependence on such illustrations for interpretation of text, both for decoding and for answering questions. Subjects--167 first graders--were asked to read four stories, two of which were taken from basal readers and two…

This guide contains 15 units designed to help adult basic education or literacy education students write materials used in everyday life. The first section of the guide contains an introduction to the writing/teaching process and suggestions for teachers. The 15 units that follow serve as a workbook for students. They cover the following topics:…

A study examined when young children begin processing phonetic cues for reading. Subjects were kindergartners selected and classified by their ability to read preprimer and primer level words on a 40-word list--prereaders (0-1 words known), novices (1-11 words known), and veterans (11-36 words known). Subjects were given reading practice with…

Designed as a component of the Navajo Bilingual Bicultural Curriculum, "Ch'al" is the first book in a series of three initial readers composed of a teacher's guide and student reader-workbook. Lessons are introduced the second semester of kindergarten or whenever the teacher feels the children are ready to begin reading and should not be longer…

The second book in a series of three initial readers designed as a component of the Navajo Bilingual Bicultural Curriculum, "Chaa'" builds on the vocabulary introduced in "Ch'al" (the first book of the series). The second reader introduces all the remaining consonants (16), except "x," in the Navajo alphabet; 11 vowel…

Contained in this yearbook are the proceedings of the fourth annual Arizona State University Reading Conference. This edition reflects an emphasis on bilingual/bicultural aspects of reading, as well as on content area instruction. Following a foreword, the articles discuss the following: (1) matching materials and strategies for comprehension, (2)…