"Contemporary Debates in Childhood Education and Development" is a unique resource and reference work that brings together leading international researchers and thinkers, with divergent points of view, to discuss contemporary problems and questions in childhood education and developmental psychology. Through an innovative format whereby leading…

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of listening to expository text on first graders' listening comprehension and book choice. The participants for this study included 77 first grade students from four heterogeneous classes at a suburban elementary school in the New York City metropolitan area. During the pretest and…

Recent statistics suggest that the number of English-language learners has been growing at a rapid rate in the United States. The growth of this population will inevitably lead to a larger number of culturally and linguistically diverse students with significant cognitive disabilities. Currently, there is little research on effective literacy…

This article reports on a study of the responses of a second-grade class to the page breaks in contemporary picturebooks. In a picturebook, the text and accompanying illustrations are divided into a series of facing pages called openings, and the divisions between the openings are called page breaks or turns. Unlike a novel, in which the page…

A prevention trial tested the efficacy of "INSIGHTS into Children's Temperament" as compared to a Read Aloud attention control condition in reducing student disruptive behavior and enhancing student competence and teacher classroom management. Participants included 116 first and second grade students, their parents, and their 42 teachers…

"Read Well"[R] is a reading curriculum for kindergarten and first-grade students whose goal is to increase students' literacy abilities. The program provides instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) reviewed five studies on "Read Well"[R] for English…

Research Findings: This study compared the unique effects of training low-income mothers in dialogic reading versus elaborative reminiscing on children's oral language and emergent literacy. Thirty-three low-income parents of 4-year-old children attending Head Start were randomly assigned to either dialogic reading, elaborative reminiscing, or a…

This unique book emphasizes the importance of supporting students' academic development with targeted vocabulary instruction that includes a wide range of language forms and words. The authors provide sound theory and practical techniques to help teachers bridge the achievement gap by strengthening vocabulary, deepening literacy skills, and…

This study describes a pilot project that included senior volunteer readers reading aloud to third graders in diverse schools across a district in northeast Florida. The researchers interviewed students about their perceptions of the aging process before and after the read aloud as well as their view of the read aloud events. The children enjoyed…

Picture book reading is a very common form of interaction between parents and very young children. Here we explore to what extent young children transfer novel information between picture books and the real world. We report that 15- and 18-month-olds can extend newly learned labels both from pictures to objects and from objects to pictures.…

This article is concerned with the role of reading aloud (RA) in language learning. General ELT methodology literature does not recommend the practice. However, recent research and specialist literature recommend using RA for various purposes. It can help reading by reinforcing graphemic-phonemic correspondences. It can aid the acquisition of…

Kissel focuses on 4-year-olds reenvisioning their writing in discussing his observations of pre-K children's writing during a two-year study. In a writers' workshop each day, children started with a clean sheet of paper. The teacher read aloud, then offered a minilesson, crafting a written piece--always with a picture--in front of the class. As…

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of questioning "during" a read-aloud and questioning "after" a read-aloud, using science-related informational tradebooks with first-and second-graders. Three thematically-related tradebooks were used, each portraying a scientist involved in authentic investigation. Students in two first/second…

Bookbabies, an initiative from the Flemish Reading Association and the Flemish Centre for Public Libraries, is a pilot project organised in 10 Flemish cities where local public libraries worked together with 82 couples with young babies for two years to set up a programme called "having fun with books". The objectives of the research…

Teacher read-alouds are planned oral readings of children's books. They are a vital part of literacy instruction in primary classrooms. Teachers can use read-alouds to develop children's background knowledge, stimulate their interest in high-quality literature, increase their comprehension skills, and foster critical thinking. While reading,…