To better understand the early stages of literacy, a study investigated how young children learn about the registers of the written story genre. Subjects, 47 kindergraten children, were individually read to and then asked to "pretend-read" one or two selected picture storybooks on three consecutive days; their readings were audiotaped…

Drawn from the experiences of actual families as well as from research findings, this book is intended to show parents how storybook reading promotes language and literacy development and instills in children a love of books and reading. Each section of the book contains parent-child vignettes and photographs of families reading books together.…

A project was conducted to help nonreading parents who want to read to their children but feel that they are not good enough readers to do so. The primary objectives of the project were to demonstrate that there are children's books that beginning readers can read to their children, to offer suggestions about reading to children, and to provide…

This booklet presents specific suggestions, based on research, to help parents encourage their children to become readers. Suggestions for reading to children include: (1) continuing to read to children once they learn to read; (2) reading to children regularly; (3) talking about what is read; (4) sharing reading; (5) starting slowly; and (6)…

Four elements are essential for efficient, effective, and rewarding teaching of beginning reading. The first is the use of children's key vocabulary. Children are asked, in a prescribed fashion, what their very best word is of the moment. The teacher prints it in a prescribed fashion and uses it to help children acquire one-to-one correspondence…

This document provides an overview, in table form, of research pertaining to the effects of reading aloud to preschool children, and stresses the important benefits that reading aloud to children has on language development, reading interest, and social attitudes and values. A reference list is included to allow teachers to locate the 12 original…

Attitudes of 60 nonretarded fourth graders toward mildly mentally retarded people were examined. Listening to a story about a mildly mentally retarded boy led to more favorable attitudes on a social distance measure; only students who were asked focusing questions before the story reported more favorable attitudes on an integration-segregation…

Reports on the observation of a group of kindergartners in their classroom library twice a week for eight weeks to learn more about how the nature of the texts--familiarity, predictability, and size--influence the children's use of books. (NH)

Surveys 254 teachers in Texas and Kansas to determine their favorite books for reading aloud to children. Shows that their preferences included twice as many male protagonists as female and that these males were portrayed more positively than the females. (FL)

Describes a project in which parents were asked to write comments about the picture books their children were reading at home. Contains samples of parent comments. (DF)

Offers tips and suggestions to teachers wishing to engage later elementary and adolescent students in storytelling and oral reading. Indicates how these activities can increase students' reading motivation and improve their language and learning skills. (HOD)

This report updates and summarizes what is known from research on the effects of test accommodations for students with disabilities and also provides direction to the design of critically needed future research on accommodations. A review was conducted of 46 empirical research studies on accommodations published from 1999 through 2001. The…

Providing an overview of some of the possibilities for enhancing education in afterschool programs, this manual provides ideas and strategies to help children and youth develop a love of learning and illustrates how much community youth development program experiences are vital to the educational growth and development of young people. Many of the…

This book examines ways parents can use their child's interests to develop positive reading attitudes, read aloud to their child, and select books for children--with the goal of developing life-long readers. The first chapter, Creating Interest and Positive Attitudes, discusses developing an early interest in reading, the "language story"…

This booklet for parents, in both English and Spanish, offers suggestions for helping their young children develop and improve their reading skills. The booklet first presents tips for helping infants or preschoolers be ready to read and ready to learn. Suggestions include talking to the infant or toddler, reading aloud starting at 6 months,…