Immigration and the role of language in education have been major issues in governance and education across the world. The current study looks at a family biliteracy program for 2- to 6-year-old students and their parents. The findings shed light on the importance of teacher-community partnerships in bridging the linguistic gap between…

Reading, writing, and communicating, also known as literacy, are important cognitive skills to teach within society. Early literacy is knowledge about reading and writing before actually being able to read and write and is the foundation to future reading and writing skills (Ghoting & Martin-Diaz, 2006). The role of families in developing early…

Young children, their caregivers, and families should take advantage of opportunities to relish stories together. In this article, the authors describe one child's earliest experiences with story that have informed their work with preschool children and their families. Carol's (the second author's) daughter Sloane is privileged in all the ways…

Technology is a way of life for most Americans. A recent study published by the National Writing Project (2007) found that Americans believe that computers have a positive effect on writing skills. The importance of learning to use technology ranked just below learning to read and write, and 74 percent of the survey respondents noted that children…

Current theory on mentoring describes the process as a mutual learning relationship in which both the mentor and the mentee gain knowledge. Many research studies have supported the benefits of mentoring programs for at-risk elementary school children. One particularly interesting mentoring project with preschool children is Jumpstart, a national…

This article describes the author's experience when visiting her grandson's kindergarten classroom. The author is a parent, and at one time was a kindergarten teacher, program director, supervisor of student teachers, and consultant, so she's been involved for well over 40 years with a vast number of children as they have had their very special…

Asserts that regardless of the method used to teach reading, children first need a strong basis in phonemic awareness. Describes phonemic awareness, differentiates it from phonics, and presents available research findings. Advises on the development of phonemic awareness and creation of a classroom environment supportive of its development. (SD)

Mapped existing literacy practices in early childhood classrooms and explored the understanding and perceptions of staff and families. Rated classrooms and staff. Identified five staff concerns for providing environmental support for early literacy development and noted staff belief/practice differences between low- and high-ranking classrooms.…

Reading specialists, as well as members of the general public, have long sought to understand why so many children in the United States read below grade level and why so many of its adult citizens are illiterate. While problems associated with reading are not unique to the United States, it is noteworthy that some nations do not experience major…

Introduces recent ERIC documents on the effects of child care on children's development. Provides citations on eight books and four journal articles with abstracts and ordering information. (MOK)

Suggests parents use catalogs to help children increase reading and math skills. Points out that catalogs link language and print, that children can increase vocabulary through picture naming, and that sorting pictures and classifying objects can increase thinking skills. Suggests that children can practice adding, counting, and comparison…