Presents issues concerning kindergarten, Grade one and Grade two curriculum content, which is now more academically oriented than 30 years ago. Using examples drawn from teaching experience, discusses related issues of school entrance age, the ungraded K-2 classroom, beginning reading instruction, and parent involvement. (NH)

Examines six major preconditions for literacy that are rooted in the home environment and discusses some of the implications of this home literacy environment for schools. (Author/PCB)

Offers teachers and parents practical suggestions for helping children to begin reading naturally. Looks at specific strategies for helping young children to learn to read, particularly a built-in success procedure emphasizing nonvisual aspects of reading. (RWB)

Studies the development of word-retrieval speed and its relationship to reading in 72 average and 11 severely impaired readers in kindergarten through the second grade. (HOD)

Discusses large corpus and pedagogical word lists. Develops two word lists based on 80 compositions of second-, fifth-, eighth-, and eleventh-grade students from a metropolitan school district in western United States. Compares both favorably to the Dolch list. Notes remaining need to investigate vocabulary of individual beginning reading texts.…

Argues that structured reading programs, workbook pages, and drills do not alone provide an adequate basis for beginning reading instruction and suggests that experiences, knowledge, and other environmental factors ensure success in reading. (HOD)

This study investigated the relationship of phonological awareness to learning to read. Australian first-grade children were tested for verbal intelligence, phonemic segmentation ability, and reading achievement. Path analysis revealed phonological awareness affected reading comprehension indirectly through phonological recoding. The development…

Investigates second grade children's ability to understand the use of deictic terms (devices in language that convey information about the communicative situation) in three types of tasks: oral language, written language, and picture selection, and concludes that the difficulty of a word with deictic content depends largely upon the discourse…

This book for beginning readers tells the story of a South African priest and his wife who are ashamed when their daughter tells them she is going to have a baby. They refuse to have anything to do with her when she is pregnant. However, when the baby comes, everything changes and they come to accept and love the baby. Large black and white…

Noting that all parents want the best school experience for their children, this booklet, presented in both English and Spanish, offers parents specific strategies to provide their children a good foundation for beginning reading. The guide first answers the question, "How Can I Help My Child Be Ready To Read and Ready To Learn?" with emergent…

This collection of articles from "The Reading Teacher" provides examples of the instructional practices which improve reading achievement, according to Reading First legislation. Each section offers a summary and discussion of the National Reading Panel Report findings, and presents several articles from "The Reading Teacher"…

Achieving literacy, while often one of the greatest challenges a child can face, is one of the most important elements in building a base for success in education and in life. Three main strategies are found to be parts of the process of how children learn to read: (1) developing phonemic awareness through the use of phonics techniques; (2) being…

Combining the strengths of both the phonics and whole language methodologies, this Windows-based computer program on CD-ROM for preschool and kindergarten children builds reading and thinking skills through active exploration in more than 175 lessons and more than 400 vocabulary words. It uses an interactive adventure on an incredible flying…

This document is comprised of six issues (1996 through 1998) of a biannually-published journal featuring research studies, theoretical essays, and classroom practice articles about the development and education of kindergarten children. The spring 1996 issue contains the following: (1) "Portfolios and Young Children: A Natural Match"…

In America, a dichotomy of teaching philosophies which acknowledge the individual needs of children have produced approaches that are used in public school classrooms. The methods exemplify the dichotomous poles and combinations of both. These dichotomous teaching approaches are often referred to as the traditional methods or parts-specific…