Reports that not much is known about the role of fathers' involvement in their children's early reading development. Provides background information concerning research into fathers' involvement in early literacy development. Offers various suggestions on encouraging fathers to become involved with their children's early literacy activities. (PA)

Argues that young children have a distinct intuitive ability to process literary experiences, well before they have the ability to decode the symbols on a page. Offers suggestions of ways to work with and develop this capacity when reading stories to young children. (SR)

Applies onset-rime theory in a randomized controlled trial to the authentic reading task of reading aloud to an adult. Finds that the rime-prompt method has potential for helping children recognize one- and two-syllable words. Notes that it is suitable for use by parents, teachers, and other helpers. (SG)

Describes how elementary teachers can give students a boost in content area reading by reading aloud paired nonfiction and fiction text sets, explaining: why nonfiction is so important; how to teach children how nonfiction works; how to carry out a paired text read-aloud; and how to look for evidence of learning in the reading/writing workshop.…

In individual sessions, 51 kindergartners listened to an adult read the same storybook twice, 2 to 4 days apart, and then completed a test of knowledge of unfamiliar words from the study. Findings confirm that story listening contributes modestly to vocabulary growth, although four exposures to words appear necessary. (SLD)

Investigates literacy experiences of 42 children at ages 3, 5, and 7, and explores the relationship of home factors to literacy development. Finds that having a favorite book at age three, letter knowledge and parents reading to children at school entry, and access to home computers and parents' knowledge of literacy teaching in school were…

Examined toddlers' spontaneous responses to six repeated readings; subjects were 2- to 3-year olds from at-risk backgrounds. Found that frequent children's responses included labeling pictures, commenting about the picture/story, and repeating what the reader said. Overall verbal activity and number of different responses increased across repeated…

Examined effects of two types of storybook reading experiences on acquisition of vocabulary of 36 preschoolers behind chronological age in expressive vocabulary. Found that children in the dialogic-reading condition made significantly larger gains in vocabulary introduced in the books, as well as gains on a standardized expressive vocabulary test,…

Analyzes three novels by three authors and conducted interviews to gain insights about their work. Explores with the authors their perceptions of their protagonists as role models or heroes. Discusses with the authors whether or not they would describe their protagonists as conformists or non-conformists. Gains insights from the authors regarding…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether fathers and mothers read differently to their four-year-old sons and daughters and to examine the effect of genre on the interactions that occurred in parent-child, shared book reading. Twenty-five dyads shared two narrative texts and two non-narrative texts. Results indicated that overall,…

Eleventh grade English class "special students" with a fourth or fifth grade level of reading ability are won over by an enterprising teacher reading stories by Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and introducing them to opera. The so called difficult kids often have more aptitude and talent than given credit for by shortsighted teachers and…

The population of Spanish-speaking families in Iowa has increased dramatically over the last decade. Needs assessment activities identified the need to reach out to these families with Extension educational programs designed to increase parenting skills. Iowa State University Extension prepared family life specialists to implement such parent…

In keeping with a sociocultural view of children's literacy development, this study investigated the book reading behaviors of African American and Puerto Rican mothers and their Head Start children. Ten African American and 10 Puerto Rican mothers and their children participated. The communicative behaviors of the mothers and children produced…

We compared the effects of children's reading of an educational electronic storybook on their emergent literacy with those of being read the same story in its printed version by an adult. We investigated 128 5- to 6-year-old kindergarteners; 64 children from each of two socio-economic status (SES) groups: low (LSES) and middle (MSES). In each…

The primary pedagogical principle of Reader's Theatre is that it "dramatizes" literature to provide both a visual and an oral stimulus for students who may be unaccustomed to using their imagination to experience literary works like novels, poems, essays, or short stories. Promoting a suggestive, "theatrical mind" approach to…