This article addresses the characteristics of learners in the emergent stage of literacy development and describes two instructional practices that facilitate the development of the alphabetic principle and concept of word in text.

This teaching tip outlines a comprehension strategy designed to support early primary students in reading to learn while learning to read. The strategy is born of the authors' classroom practices and is designed to support young children in reading and understanding informational texts by facilitating close interactions between text and reader.…

Direct quotation can be a source of meaning in storybook texts for beginning readers. The author of this article sketches the linguistic complexity of direct quotation and offers instructional strategies. Three aspects of direct quotation are examined: the cluster of print features and syntactic characteristics that direct quotation involves, the…

By observing children who learn to read by themselves, teachers may learn some important aspects of beginning reading. (JM)

Indicates that a relatively small percentage of the gifted preschool population actually starts to read before starting kindergarten. (Author)

Describes approaches to involving parents in reading programs. (MKM)

Demonstrates the positive effects of instruction using environmental print to stimulate print awareness in preschool children. (FL)

Examines the history of preschool reading instruction, what researchers recommend, and what is actually happening in preschools, then asks whether reading should be taught to young children. (FL)

Reflects on the possible factors that enabled the author's child to learn to read at the age of five. (MKM)

Results of a study of early reading responses of young children in a Finnish preschool challenge the belief that grapheme-phoneme regularity is a critical factor in beginning reading. (JM)

Research shows that kindergarten children can and do learn to read, but many questions about early instruction remain unanswered. (MKM)

Reports results of a three-year longitudinal study exploring the evolution of young children's ideas about reading. Finds that there was only moderate consistency in the ages at which concepts emerged and that the sequence of conceptual development was quite uniform across these children. (SR)

Discusses the concept of emergent literacy, summarizing several theories and studies on children's early experiences with reading and writing. Examines the implications of this research for beginning reading and writing instruction. (MM)