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)

Draws upon research, theory, and experience to support six changes in the way reading comprehension is taught. (FL)

The National Literacy Mission Authority has begun pilot testing an innovative open distance education program for newly literate individuals in 20 districts of India. Using open and distance education where literacy is at its infancy is feasible because newly literate persons can manage to read printed material and have the motivation to read and…

Suggesting that empirical work in the field of reading has advanced sufficiently to allow substantial agreed-upon results and conclusions, this literature review cuts through the detail of partially convergent, sometimes discrepant research findings to provide an integrated picture of how reading develops and how reading instruction should…

This paper provides information about the beginnings of literacy in young children and the skills they need for reading readiness. The paper also describes what is meant by a "quality early literacy instruction" and reading skill development in early childhood settings. It outlines early reading behaviors, including phonemic awareness,…

This kit presents the "Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing (LiPS) Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech," a program designed to promote the development of an oral-motor, visual, and auditory feedback system that enables all students, including students with learning disabilities, to prove the identity, number, and order of phonemes in…

This bulletin is concerned with how children learn to read. It describes as simply as possible the teacher's part in the reading experiences children have, and the ways parents can help in making the learning-to-read years of the child's life both happy and successful. Learning to read is not limited to the first grade. During each year a child…

Discusses the critical relationships among play, learning to read, and early reading achievement. Gives examples of kindergarten play activities that nurture the ability to read, including painting, playing with lettered blocks, movement activities, sociodramatic play, and field trips. (FL)

Sixteen children with severe reading problems in first grade received a year-long individual tutorial intervention. Growth curve analyses found significant gains on measures of orthographic and phonological coding, word identification, word attack skills, reading comprehension, letter automaticity, and spelling and marginally significant gains in…

Explores how the emerging literacy stage emphasizes the child's primary role in his or her individual progression in becoming literate. Provides guidance to teachers and parents to promote a child's language experimentation by emphasizing a supportive environment and enhancing natural learning by encouraging reading to children, self-directed…

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…