Knowledge supports all aspects of reading including decoding, fluency, and comprehension (Cervetti & Hiebert, 2015; Cervetti & Wright, 2020; Duke & Cartwright, 2021; Kintsch, 1988, 1988; McNamara & Kintsch, 1996; Priebe et al., 2012). Early knowledge predicts reading growth, and science knowledge and reading have a mutually…

Reading literature to engage young children in critical discussions about race -- and how it impacts their daily lives -- is a promising practice. This study examined how two teachers and eight young children talked about skin colour as they read books about racial diversity, and the extent to which participation structures and conversational…

RFA's three-year mixed methods evaluation of Children's Literacy Initiative's language and literacy supports found positive impacts despite higher-than-typical teacher turnover. In pre-K centers receiving CLI supports, teachers were more able to implement effective instructional practices and created richer classroom literacy environments, and…

Two experiments explored the effects of reading digital storybooks on tablet computers with 25 preschoolers, aged 4-5. In the first experiment, the students' word recognition scores were found to increase significantly more when students explored a digital storybook and employed the read-aloud function than when they were read to from a comparable…

Research for Action's Year Two evaluation report indicates that most lead teachers demonstrated high fidelity to the key elements of the Blueprint approach in the classroom, though some teachers experienced issues related to differentiating instruction and the simultaneous implementation of Blueprint and Creative Curriculum. The authors found…

The enquiries in this study were directed towards the reading of children's literature in preschool with the aim of describing and analysing how read-alouds were carried out in 39 preschools in the northern and southern parts of Sweden. How often were read-alouds performed? How long were they? How was literature chosen? Who initiated the…

Enhancing young children's early literacy achievement is a top priority in many countries. There is a considerable body of research demonstrating young children's language development as a critical factor in reading and later academic success. Implementation of high quality literacy instruction has the potential to improve literacy…

Storybook features, such as linguistic richness and print salience, potentially influence how a teacher references print. This study addressed two research questions: (1) to what extent does the linguistic richness and print salience of children's storybooks relate to teachers' use of print referencing? and (2) to what extent is there an interplay…

The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of a 4-week dialogic reading intervention with rural Bangladeshi preschoolers with the intention of increasing their expressive vocabulary. Eighty preschoolers randomly selected from five preschools participated in the 4-week program. Their expressive vocabulary, measured in terms of…

Today's preschool teachers are educating a diverse population of children, with many from homes where English is not the first language. In light of this growing number of English Language Learners (ELLs) in preschool, researchers have investigated ways to support ELLs' emergent literacy development. One of the ways to support ELLs' emergent…

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…