This report presents the details of a year-long study conducted by Research for Action of the impact and implementation of the Children's Literacy Initiative (CLI) Pre-K Intervention. Thirty-five district-operated and community-based Pre-K programs from Broward County Public Schools and the Early Learning Coalition of Broward County were enrolled…

Fans often express their love of authors or books by creating and sharing "fanfiction," a genre wherein fans write new narratives that add to beloved works or take place in existing story worlds. In this article, we describe a kindergarten teacher's efforts to enhance students' foundational literacy skills by combining author studies…

According to the National Assessment of Education Progress, students in one state in the midwestern United States showed little change in reading scores despite the use of literacy coaches. The problem of focus in this study was inadequate primary students' reading achievement in the focus state. Bandura's social learning theory was used in this…

Preschool teachers' literacy-related beliefs and literacy knowledge relate to their educational practices and preschoolers' literacy skills. In this light, we explored how preschool teachers' beliefs regarding early literacy and its promotion predict their knowledge, reflected in how they evaluate three young children's writing products and their…

The aim of this research was to create spaces for kindergarten writers by collaborating with kindergarten teachers through action research cycles. The inquiry's problem of practice is situated in the understanding that writing instruction within kindergarten classrooms is being sidelined due to a drive to teach in ways aligned to a sub-skills…

Early childhood research and policy have promoted the use of language and literacy assessment data to inform instruction. Yet, there is a limited understanding of preschool teachers' data practices and sensemaking, particularly when considered from the perspectives of practicing teachers. In this multicase study, we used a phenomenological…

This study used a modified mixed-method sequential explanatory design to explore how preschool teachers perceive and use complex talk within different activity settings and content areas to facilitate language and literacy skills. The combination of large-scale, quantitative data (455 children, 63 teachers) from a pre-K study and in-depth,…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if providing targeted professional development (AIM Pathways to Proficient Reading) in foundational literacy skills based on the science of reading and Structured Literacy can lead to a difference in teacher knowledge and to determine a relationship between teacher knowledge and student…

Researchers have known for several years that when a child is reading below proficiency by the end of third grade, it is likely the child will continue to struggle learning to read through the child's academic career (Dickinson & Porche, 2011; Wasik & Hindman, 2011). Yet, the problem of children falling below third grade reading…

This article deals with the connection between theory and practice in the context of a further education programme (FEP) (KigaDance) for nursery teachers based on contemporary dance education. The evaluation of the FEP had a programme-forming objective within the meaning of a formative evaluation. The applied method included data collection based…

Literacy is an essential human right that serves as the basis for advancing one's education. Literacy education focuses on two key areas: foundational reading and reading comprehension skills. The five foundational literacy skills are phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and reading comprehension. Providing students with direct…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore preschool teachers' beliefs about early reading and spelling instruction and how their attitudes toward Direct Instruction (DI) of Print Concept Knowledge (PCK) influenced the literacy skills of preschool students in a Southeastern Virginia school district. Vygotsky's social…

Despite considerable evidence on the links between average classroom quality and children's learning, the importance of variation in quality is not well understood. We examined whether three measures of variation in observed classroom quality over the school year -- overall variation in quality, teacher-specific trends in quality, and instability…

Nursery practitioners often highlight the difference between the children who attend morning sessions and those who attend afternoon sessions, with the feeling that the morning session children are more receptive and show greater improvement in their development than those who attend in the afternoon, but no specific data OR evidence has been…

This study examined the effects of maternal and children's resources on school readiness, literacy achievements, and reading motivation in children. The participants included children (N = 180) (124 girls; 56 boys) from 19 kindergartens, their mothers, and their kindergarten teachers. Mothers reported on their working hours, interaction quality,…