The purpose of the current study was to test the efficacy of a supplemental phonological awareness focused intervention delivered by community-based paraeducators with preschool children (M = 4.73 years) in eight Head Start classrooms in the rural Midwest. Participating children were randomly assigned to small groups within classrooms, which were…

When response activities and comprehension strategies are combined, classroom instruction can enhance student engagement and understanding of a text, enrich student response, and improve students' awareness of their own strategic reading. This article presents some activities, adapted from the new IRA book "Children's Literature in the Reading…

The simple view of reading (SVR) provides a conceptual framework for describing the processes involved when readers comprehend text. Strong evidence for the SVR comes from factor-analytic studies showing dissociations between decoding and comprehension skills. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether predecoding and comprehension…

This article discusses the kinds of instructional activities that young children need to develop basic language and literacy skills based on recent research and program evaluations. This includes approaches to develop alphabetic understanding, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and oral language. Activities and materials from the Pre-kindergarten…

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…

Part of social and emotional development is a child's emotional literacy. Numerous strategies exist for the development of children's emotional and social development, and for their emotional readiness for school. Teachers might arrange a classroom environment that is not overly structured or regimented. The environment should reflect who the…

Written expressly for preschool teachers, this engaging book explains the "whats," "whys," and "how-tos" of implementing best practices for instruction in the preschool classroom. The authors show how to target key areas of language and literacy development across the entire school day, including whole-group and small-group activities, center…

We investigated the effect of repeated readings of an electronic book (e-book) on pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children from low (n = 127) and middle (n = 120) SES groups. Children were randomly assigned to one of three options: reading an e-book in five sessions, reading an e-book in three sessions, or receiving the regular kindergarten…

Readers theatre is a presentation by two or more participants who read from scripts and interpret a literary work in such a way that the audience imaginatively senses characterization, setting, and action. This book offers 50, two-page reproducible scripts to entice the preschool and kindergarten group into beginning to read. These patterned…

Preschool and kindergarten are transition years in the U.S. educational system, and teaching four-, five- and six-year-olds means living on the margins of one educational community or another. But many preschool and kindergarten teachers like it that way. These teachers get to take ideas from the primary grades and combine them with the…

Evidence strongly suggests that shared book reading at home and in preschool is important for young children's development of the foundational skills required for the eventual mastery of decoding and comprehension. Yet the nuances of how learning from book reading might vary across these contexts and with children's skills are not well understood.…

Broadly, the current study contributes to the growing body of evidence supporting the positive effects of PA (phonological awareness) interventions for preschoolers, demonstrating that PA instruction need not be postponed until kindergarten. Specifically, the current study addresses the paucity of research on PA training in preschool by testing…

The foundation of all learning is rooted in the development of language and literacy abilities. Literacy development begins well before children enter school and can accelerate in an early childhood classroom setting. Teacher educators often hear about the importance of literacy development. In particular, the significance of phonological…

Reading difficulties and disabilities present serious and potentially lifelong challenges. Children who do not read well are more likely to be retained a grade in school, drop out of high school, become a teen parent, or enter the juvenile justice system. Building on the extant research and seminal studies, including the National Reading Panel and…

Phonological awareness is one of several key precursor skills to conventional literacy that develop during the preschool period. Significant amounts of research support the causal and predictive relation between phonological awareness and children's ease of learning to decode and spell. However, many preschool curricula and early childhood…