Discusses the intertextuality and metafiction of children's literature for beginning readers; specifically Allan Ahlberg's "Ten in a Bed." (MG)

Draws a humorous analogy between superstitious behavior induced in chickens and the beliefs and folkways that are manifested in the teaching of beginning reading and the teaching of study strategies. Argues that it is very easy and natural to fall into patterns of superstitious, meaningless behavior, such as teaching from basal readers. (RS)

Discusses children's interest in names, and the importance of this interest for their developing literacy. (MM)

Discusses connections between play and reading at the primary level. Notes that sociodramatic play has the clearest link to reading because it involves imagination and manipulation of time and reality. Argues that play facilitates reading when it involves both the manipulation of symbols and acts of reading and writing. (MM)

Describes five steps for increasing the literacy level of adult beginning readers using creative plays. Notes that creative plays as reading material empowers the adult beginning reader because (1) the content is personalized; (2) it allows for positive reinforcement on an affective level; and (3) it provides insights into possible strategies for…

Discusses the critical contribution of story awareness to beginning reading. Discusses cultural influences on story awareness, encouraging the use of literature in classrooms, questioning strategies, and concepts of story. (SR)

Finds sequences of "episodes" that included various reading and talk strategies within emergent reading done by preschoolers. Indicates that children accumulate a repertoire of strategies, rather than abandoning old strategies as they develop new ones. Reveals several book, setting, and reading factors that contributed to changing strategies…

Examines what is entailed in effective phonics instruction and shows how such instruction can be integrated into a wide variety of approaches to the teaching of beginning reading. Discusses nine guidelines for exemplary phonics instruction that can be incorporated into classrooms using basal readers, whole-language philosophy, or shared reading of…

Investigates the kind of print-related knowledge that emergent readers must possess to learn to point to the words of a text as they recite it from memory (fingerpoint-reading) and to remember information about the print from this activity. Reveals that different types of print knowledge facilitate different aspects of fingerpoint-reading. (SR)

Gives suggestions for teaching decoding to the beginning reader. It is important to align decoding with the stages of reading development as well as with the structure of the English language. Systematic, explicit instruction ensures the success of most children. Keeping instruction connected to meaning respects the ways that children learn…

Presents the 38 most common phonograms (rhymes or word families) in rank order based on frequency. Notes that these 38 phonograms with added beginning consonants can make 654 different one-syllable words, and that teaching phonograms can be a definite help in teaching students to decode and thus to read and write better. (SR)

Reviews the conception of early literacy acquisition as a social-cognitive activity, sketches the evolution of phonemic awareness, and discusses how psychological research might contribute to understanding and applying this construct. The paper suggests the importance of synergy between previously warring factions and highlights the need for…

Reinvestigated claim that beginning readers exploit information from orthographic rime of clue words to help them decode unfamiliar words. Among the findings: children were able to use orthographic information from beginning, middle, and end of clue words to identify unfamiliar words, with clue word presentation enhancing the reading of…

Three kindergarten children learned to select printed consonant-vowel-consonant words upon hearing the corresponding spoken words. The words were taught in six sets. Within sets, the four words that were taught had overlapping letters. Two children demonstrated recombinative generalization after one training set and the third demonstrated it after…

Challenges three basic claims about the scientific "database" concerning rhyme and analogy in reading made in another article in this journal: (1) the relationship between rhyme and reading remains controversial; (2) there is doubt about the relevance of children's ability to make orthographic analogies for classroom reading instruction; and (3)…