Encouraging the love of reading is a vitally important priority that has positive consequences for students' literacy growth, both now and in the future. Children need daily, in-school opportunities to enjoy reading and become immersed in reading as a lifetime activity. Although a wide variety of considerations are useful for promoting the reading…

Previous studies have shown that phonological awareness correlates with children's reading aloud and also adults' literacy experience. More recent research has further suggested that phonological awareness is associated with the processing of spoken language, which is a correlate of reading comprehension. In this paper, I argue that phonological…

Learning to read and write is a social as well as a cognitive undertaking, and children are literally driven to learn language because of their need to communicate. Just as children go though stages in learning to talk, they go through similar stages when learning to read and write. Literacy learning is also rooted in the culture of the child and…

A study examined a program for improving attitudes toward reading. Subjects were 19 kindergarten, 39 first-grade, 17 second-grade, and 29 sixth-grade students in a middle class southwestern suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Reading attitude problems were documented through parent/student surveys and observations. Students' reading was prioritized in…

Intended primarily for teachers and others who work with children from approximately three to eight years of age, this book suggests ways to make and introduce Big Book versions of well-loved predictable stories and describes how shared book experiences can lead to learning across the curriculum. The book presents teaching tips, book…

Conducted as part of the 1992 Integrated Reading Performance Record (IRPR), a study investigated the oral reading proficiency of a subgroup of students participating in the 1992 reading assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Subjects, 1,136 fourth graders, read aloud one passage and were audiotaped as they…

Intended for parents to read to their infants and young children, this booklet of mostly traditional nursery rhymes has been designed and illustrated by elementary school students. Each of the 16 nursery rhymes in the booklet is accompanied by short instructive or informational remarks which reiterate the importance of parents' reading to their…

An ethnographic study analyzed and compared children's participation in book reading activities with their participation in other types of literacy activities. Subjects, 15 bilingual children who were enrolled in a multilingual, multicultural preschool program where English was the common language, were encouraged to maintain their native…

Focusing on reading aloud in the classroom, this monograph demonstrates ways to integrate read alouds into an ongoing whole-language program in which children learn to reflect on literature by listening and responding to it. The monograph identifies and describes specific teaching strategies that invite students not only to listen to stories,…

Designed to accompany reading of children's books from all genres, this book helps teachers meet the challenge of selecting the best literature for children. It trains future teachers to make judgments about what constitutes quality children's literature and thoroughly discusses the nature of and genres within children's literature. Taking readers…

A study examined parent decisions prior to and during reading aloud events with their first-grade children. Subjects were the parents of 342 first-graders in a suburban public elementary school district. Multiple methods of data collection were used, including surveys, diaries, interviews, videotapes, and stimulated recalls. Based on an analysis…

This pamphlet is designed to help parents help their children make the short but important step from language play to loving writing. The pamphlet discusses ways to: encourage children's curiosity and imaginative play; make reading an important part of family life; and respect children's interests in writing and reading. It also suggests…

A study examined the effects of less able readers' learning vocabulary from listening. Subjects, 43 sixth-grade students in two classes in an urban public school, were read one of two selections from seventh-grade literature anthologies. Two days later, the subjects completed orally or in writing a multiple-choice vocabulary test containing words…

A study was conducted to determine if pregnant women read to their unborn child. A randomly selected sample of 47 pregnant women in the Toms River, New Jersey area between the ages of 20 and 35, visiting their obstetricians' offices for monthly checkups were chosen for the study. A questionnaire was administered to mothers in the waiting room…

For the purpose of examining the relationship between preschool children's level of literacy development and the contextualization of story content to the children's world knowledge, a study was conducted investigating how parents of high and low print aware children contextualize stories for them in terms of their prior knowledge. The study…