Offers several suggestions for activities to be used with Big Books, including: tracking print, thinking along, cloze activities, and examining text features. (MG)

Examines the influence of a regular book borrowing service designed to enable and encourage parents to read to their children. Finds no statistically significant difference between control and experimental groups on a reading test, but finds an unexpectedly high level of parental interest. (RS)

The application of learning styles to the teaching of reading to students with reading disabilities is critiqued in light of four factors: (1) inability to adequately assess learning styles; (2) failure to acknowledge the necessity of phonics instruction for beginning readers; (3) failure to consider the nature of reading disabilities; and (4)…

Study investigated which teacher activities related to differences in kindergarten students' reading performance. Teacher observation and fall and spring tests of reading performance indicated that what happened in the classrooms, rather than length of school day, determined children's reading ability at the end of kindergarten. (SM)

Offers a 69-item list of children's books published in 1996 or 1997 that are suitable for kindergarten and first-grade children in helping them develop phonemic awareness. Offers a letter to parents that describes some specific activities they can do at home that highlight phonemic awareness. Offers a parents' phonemic awareness observation…

As children begin to grasp the basic functions of literacy, they become engaged in meaning-making that alternates between and/or combines oral language, written and printed symbols, drawings, and other formats. This article examines the benefits to children of an integrated approach to literacy, highlighting the Reggio Emilia approach, and offers…

During a time of reform and accountability, school districts are closely monitoring teachers' instructional decisions, practices, and classroom environments. In this paper, we apply neocolonial theory to describe the experiences of elementary grade teachers in one California school district who are required to follow a scripted basal reading…

Two main questions were addressed in this study: (1) How does first grade Latino English-language learners' growth in English instructional reading level and selected word-level reading subprocesses (ability to read words in isolation, phonemic awareness, and phonics) compare to their monolingual native-English-speaking peers' growth?; and (2)…

Outlining how teachers can best support a literate community yet still meet the needs of individual readers, this book explains how to create a balanced literacy program for grades K-3 based on guided reading and supported by reading aloud, shared reading, interactive writing, and other approaches. The book also presents guidelines for observation…

This book, which is written and designed for intermediate adult literacy students, relates selected outcomes of 12 "woman-positive" literacy and adult basic education programs that were sponsored/studied in different parts of Canada by the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women (CCLOW). Part 1 discusses the mission of the…

Using the tools of systematic grammar, this case study examined 3- and 4-year-old children's experiences with storytelling and the potential effects of those experiences on the children's future success in learning to read. Subjects were students attending one of two nursery school classes held at a large primary school on the south coast of…

This booklet presents a reading and writing intervention program for French Canadian preschool children with developmental delays, to be implemented by parents or collaboratively by parents and teachers. The program calls for children to have frequent contacts with written language, in order to facilitate the development of a positive attitude…

Concern about the high percentage of underprepared minority students in American schools and the increasing demand that schools educate them to a level never before attained are discussed, and a study of reading disabled bilingual students is reported. It is noted that continuing to allow a disproportionate number of minority or disadvantaged…

This report documents the activities of the Research Network, a coordinated effort of the International Development Research Center (IDRC) and the Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) Department of Baroda University (India) during the period January 1990 to June 1993. The Research Network aimed to establish a network of consultative…

This handbook for early childhood educators describes the Sesame Street PEP, an educational enrichment program for 3- to 5-year-olds that makes learning a fun and challenging adventure by using the educational goals of the Sesame Street show, children's books, and developmentally appropriate activities. This program seeks to: (1) stimulate…