This article highlights two key problems of practice the author faced as the instructor of an elementary literacy methods class for Teach for America corps members in a large, northeastern city during an era characterized by strict state and district control: the deficit perspectives the corps members held of their students and the lack of…

Describes four innercity families and the ways in which they use print in their daily lives. Finds wide variation in the degrees to which print permeates the lives of innercity children, in both the extent to which family members use print and the types of print being written and read. (SR)

This report considers six schools in two urban districts that made deliberate commitments to improve student performance in early language and literacy--each story is different, yet they all share an important insight: that a school and a model provider can work together to help every child learn to read. As the stories in the report demonstrate,…

Reports on a year-long study of how children's literacy practices enhanced their understanding of themselves and their social worlds. Finds that children's reading and writing benefited them personally and socially, enabling them to understand a complex urban landscape, to explore new social identities, and to wrestle with social problems and ways…

Describes an alternative tutoring program, where meaningful teaching and learning emerges within an urban community, and its evaluation process. Notes that preservice teachers learn to understand the social context within which literacy can occur. Reveals the impact of this experience on preservice teachers' teaching and learning, as well young…

A study, part of a 5-year investigation (1991-1995) of patterns of implementation of literature-based instruction in schools serving large numbers of children from low-income families, recounts children's literacy experiences as observed in a third-grade classroom in an urban school in upstate New York. The primary goal was to understand the…

School-based coaching for literacy teachers has taken on an important role in school reform in recent years. Although the literature contains numerous and compelling descriptions of the perceived, positive effects of mentoring, reviews of the literature base on mentoring and/or coaching over the past 20 years have consistently identified the need…

Interviews with an urban Los Angeles first-grade teacher and observations of her class illustrate how social and cultural issues are brought into the classroom, creating an environment in which students learn to "read the world," acquiring social and cultural literacy as well as the more commonly perceived personal literacy. When…

A study investigated access to books for children in schools that described their literacy curriculum as "literature-based." Six schools that served economically disadvantaged children exhibited a wide variation in the number of books available in both school libraries and classrooms. Two of the schools depict the influences on children's access…

This collection of research-based articles is framed around the International Reading Association's 10 "literacy rights" of every child, outlining what children need to become competent readers and writers. Under Right 1--Children have a right to appropriate early reading instruction based on their individual needs--are the following…

Responding to the growing consensus among researchers and educators that prevention of learning problems makes more sense than remediation, this book presents essays that suggest ways to improve literacy instruction for all children, particularly those who are at risk. Essays in the book discuss practical matters such as funding, curriculum,…

Contains an assessment of the inner-city literacy crisis, a critique of rationales for reading failure based on "deficit" and "difference" type ideologies, a call for the study of successful inner-city schools, an evaluation of G. Weber's study of successful inner-city schools, and the development of an urban literacy agenda. (FL)

Describes a service learning program with a focus on literacy called the Student Literacy Corps. Describes how urban elementary school children, college students, professors, administrators, and community members worked, shared, and learned together. Includes a sample lesson. (SR)

This handbook describes an innovative instructional/innovation model (implemented in an urban school district in the southwestern United States) that represents a promising approach to the education of language minority students. School personnel, parents, and educational planners may use the handbook to assess the appropriateness of the…

A longitudinal study described the language and literacy abilities of urban at-risk children at several points over a 3-year period; provided the children with small-group literature-based reading/language arts instruction; and compared these children's progress in literacy achievement to other similar groups. Participants in the study were…