New research shows that certain conditions surrounding read-alouds will ensure the greatest benefits. Suggestions for getting the most out of reading aloud include: engage students' interests; make sure the books are at the right difficulty level; spend an appropriate amount of time on reading aloud; offer a range of materials to read aloud; and…

Children who read only when they have no choice will not become good readers. One of the simplest ways to motivate children to read at all grade levels is for teachers to read to their classes. In this column, the author suggests some steps that teachers can take to make reading more appealing to their students.

Dialogic reading is an evidence-based intervention to promote the language skills of 2- and 3-year-old children. This study examined conditions under which dialogic reading could be implemented in a community setting. Three methods of instruction were compared: (a) in-person with video instruction in small groups, (b) self-instruction by video…

Most literacy experts agree that "literacy is regarded as a social practice, rather than as merely a set of decontextualized or abstract skills such as decoding symbols to sounds or finding the main idea of a passage" (Handel 1999; Barton, Hamilton, and Ivanic 2000). For example, very young children may learn to appreciate that being read to…

Bringing together leading scholars, this book describes proven ways to enhance early literacy skills in 3- and 4-year-olds, especially those from low-income families. Presented are scientifically based methods and approaches that are being applied in Early Reading First programs around the country. Important topics include promoting oral language…

Gaps in school achievement among racial/ethnic groups and between students from different socioeconomic circumstances are well documented. They are wide and persistent, well known and widely acknowledged. This report focuses on the conditions and experiences that create and perpetuate achievement gaps. It is the second edition of the report…

In an effort to increase her students' interest in science, a teacher in an underresourced school secured large donations of science-related books for her classroom of second-language learners. By balancing her science classroom library and read-alouds with a number of interesting nonfiction trade books and storybooks, the teacher tried to enhance…

Reading aloud makes important contributions to young children's literacy development, but some methods of reading aloud are much more beneficial than others. Researchers have investigated ways to make read-aloud sessions more meaningful for children, and several methods have emerged as particularly effective. This article examines the role of…

Although fluency instruction is an essential part of teaching reading, there is limited information on providing this type of instruction with students who have physical disabilities. This article examines three case studies across two students, one with cerebral palsy and the other with both arthrogryposis and spina bifida. In the first study,…

The goal of the family literacy workshop "Reading Theatre, Parents as Actors: Movie production in a Family Literacy Workshop" is to empower and motivate parents to learn various storytelling strategies through theatrical production experiences and apply them at home. This is a theory-based family literacy practice supported by McClelland's…

Simple name-retrieval models of spoken word planning (Bloem & La Heij, 2003; Starreveld & La Heij, 1996) maintain (1) that there are two levels in word planning, a conceptual and a lexical phonological level, and (2) that planning a word in both object naming and oral reading involves the selection of a lexical phonological representation.…

This study examined the relation among mothers' literacy-related beliefs, the home literacy environment, the quality of mother-child book-reading interactions, and children's development of early literacy skills. The participants of this study were 60 mothers and their 4-year-old children. After controlling for mothers' educational attainment,…

Early literacy development is the gateway to reading and future academic success. Learning about sound-letter correspondence and basic decoding strategies are but two fundamental skills that have been found to support this later success. In addition, an emphasis on environmental print (e.g., McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Shell) and functional print (e.g.,…

"Interactive Shared Book Reading" is a general practice that adults may use when reading with children and is intended to enhance young children's language and literacy skills. Typically, "Interactive Shared Book Reading" involves an adult reading a book to a child or a small group of children and using a variety of techniques…

Vygotsky (1978) presented ideas influential to the "constructivist" approach to education. This approach included the "zone of proximal development," and defined what is essential for student's development of a higher cognitive ability in order to become self-motivated learners. His theory also directly relates to the research regarding the…