Educators suggest that children whose families have read to them during their preschool years acquire lexical and syntactic knowledge of sentence-level features typical of written narrative before they begin formal literacy instruction. To test this claim, to discern growth in this knowledge over time and experience, and to describe the lexical…

L. S. Vygotsky's book "Mind in Society" was published more than 50 years ago in Russia, but it is now being recognized as relevant to contemporary research in child development because of the areas of investigation that he suggested. Vygotsky views children as active participants in their own learning and suggests that researchers…

Drawing upon those aspects of "Becoming a Nation of Readers" directly relevant to classroom teachers, this booklet suggests ideas for classroom practices, based on research, that will improve students' reading achievement. The booklet is organized around five instructional themes: defining reading, reading readiness, beginning reading,…

Integrating reading and writing at the primary level is important because writing and then reading back what has been written gives purpose to both, and the sense of overall purpose enhances reading while the sense of audience enhances writing. Another reason for starting this integration with beginning students is that writing creates a purpose…

A study investigated initial reading acquisition in English and an ethnic tongue in two New York schools (Holy Martyrs, Armenian and St. Spiridons, Greek) which are representative of an immigration-based biliteracy tradition. The population consisted of students who were mostly (at least 80%) native born, English dominant, and from bilingual…

Creating a link between current research findings and classroom practice, this book analyzes, compares, and critiques prevalent classroom strategies in beginning reading instruction in light of expertise available in other countries. The book begins with a section on "Points of Departure," consisting of three chapters:…

Compiled by members of the Reading Committee of the North Middlesex Regional School District (Massachusetts), this illustrated guide provides tips, suggestions, and activities that parents can follow at home to help their children read. The Clues about Reading Enrichment (CARE) guide notes that regularly reading aloud to and with children is an…

Instructional and assessment activities in language arts are presented in this teacher's guide to unit two of a Spanish language arts curriculum for first graders. Focus, objective, and materials for each activity are given in English and Spanish, with teacher instructions only in Spanish. Four small picture books for students (brief Spanish…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: the effects of reading preference, diagnostic-prescriptive teaching, prior knowledge, training in visual imagery, and electromyograph biofeedback training on reading comprehension;…

One of twenty course guides in the Community Living Skills Guide for the College for Living series, this document provides guidelines and workbook activities for the course, Reading I. The series of courses for developmentally disabled adults is intended to supplement residential programs and to aid in orienting institutionalized persons to…

One of twenty course guides in the Community Living Skills Guide for the College for Living series, this guide provides guidelines and workbook activities for the course Reading II. The series of courses for developmentally disabled adults is intended to supplement residential programs and to aid in orienting institutionalized persons to eventual…

This document, which is the first in a series of best practice documents incorporating the wisdom and experiences of New York's adult educators, presents eight learning experiences that are specifically tailored for adult learners and instructors. The following information is provided for each learning experience: (1) a brief description of the…

This book narrates the story of a literacy circle that was created by adults who were attending basic literacy and new reader classes. The introduction provides in-depth discussions of each of the seven principles of dialogic learning, which are as follows: egalitarian dialogue; cultural intelligence; transformation; instrumental dimension;…

This document contains eight papers from an action research program to foster good practice in adult literacy provision and policy. "Introduction" (J. Joy Cumming, Christina E. van Kraayenoord) presents an overview of the action research project and individual reports. "Assessment: Making a Difference in Adult Literacy and Numeracy…

The research on literacy practices for adults with learning disabilities was reviewed. A computerized search of four databases--Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI), ERIC, Psychological Abstracts (PA), and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)--yielded more than 500 pertinent publications that were published during the past 14 years. Of the…