Preschool and kindergarten educators know that strong oral language skills must be in place before children can learn to read. In "Before They Read: Teaching Language and Literacy Development through Conversations, Interactive Read-Alouds, and Listening Games," Cathy Puett Miller helps educators teach those early literacy skills with engaging…

Play is a significant medium for children's literacy development. As children engage in play activities, they are given opportunities and the motivation to show what they already know about reading and writing systems. Previous literature has shown that a literacy-rich environment increases the number of literacy activities available through play.…

As early as preschool, children who struggle with emergent literacy skills can benefit from effective response to intervention. Don't wait until later grades when they've already fallen behind--improve their literacy skills now with this evidence-based Tier 2 RTI curriculum, ready for any pre-K educator to pick up and use right away. Created by…

The school readiness of young dual language learners depends on high-quality preschool programs that meet their needs--but how should schools promote and measure the progress of children learning two languages? Find out what the research says in this authoritative resource, which investigates the experiences of dual language learners in preschool…

In the action research project report, the teacher researchers found that many kindergarten and first-grade students did not have the reading readiness skills to be reading at their benchmark target. The purpose of the project was to improve the students overall reading ability. The dates of the project began on September 8 through December 20,…

Rigorous research provides information that will allow ECE (Early Childhood Educator) programs to select interventions that have a scientifically based track record of effectiveness in increasing teachers' skills and teaching quality. This paper shares implementation and impact results as well as the lessons learned in conducting an evaluation of…

The purpose of the study was to examine student teachers' perceptions of teaching writing in kindergartens and to identify to what extent the cooperating teachers influence the student teachers' perceptions. To achieve the research aims, a 31-item questionnaire was developed by the researchers and administered to 50 student teachers and their…

The research indicates that there are many benefits to pre-kindergarten participation which includes positive social and emotional benefits and academic achievement gains (Barnett et al., 2005; Cody, 1993; Neuman, 2007; U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, 2010). The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the effects of the…

Storytimes, lap-sit programs, and other services for young children are a major part of most public libraries' missions. According to children's librarians, these services play a significant role in preparing children for success as readers. This article discusses the positive relationship between children's services and early reading success by…

Parents are their children's first and foremost important teachers. This paper presents some ways parents can help their children "get ready to read" during the ages of 2, 3, 4 and 5. This paper also offers several checklists for parents of kindergartners, first graders, second graders, and third graders.

This report reviews and evaluates the tradition of assessing early literacy with formal tests. It begins with a historical account of the readiness movement, focusing on the development of formal measures of early literacy and tracing the development of the movement into the 1980s. Next, the paper analyzes in depth tests that are currently…

"The Critical Word Factor," based on word recognition demands of texts, is a measure of text difficulty designed specifically for texts used by beginning readers. The measure is a function of the number of new, unique words per 100 running words of text that fall outside a designated curriculum. The authors investigated the validity of the…

Children's communicative competence is essential and predictive of their success in school. However, in England in recent years we have faced particular challenges inculcating this understanding into primary and early years teachers' practice. Furthermore, some studies have raised concerns about children's communicative competence on school entry.…

Discusses the concept of "emergent literacy," contrasting this term with the concept of reading readiness. Proposes that a program of kindergarten instruction related to literacy should provide opportunities for children to interact successfully with print. (MM)

"Waterford Early Reading Level One"[TM] is an emergent literacy curriculum that uses computer-based technology to prepare children for reading. It begins with a tutorial to familiarize the child with the computer and mouse and a reading placement evaluation to assess and determine whether a child should work on "Level One"…