One hundred thirteen kindergartners and first graders completed phonological awareness (PA) tasks designed to separate task difficulty from linguistic complexity. Comparison of these results with measures of early literacy suggests that PA measured by differences in linguistic complexity seems more closely related to the single factor on which…

The purpose of this report is to provide education professors teaching early literacy methods courses with information for beginning teachers to support struggling first-grade readers. This analysis identifies the specific word structures children are expected to know by the end of first grade, and shows the actual learning rates of these…

The first in a series reporting on strategies to improve children's readiness for school and to help schools be better prepared to meet the needs of all children, this report traces Arkansas' efforts to improve reading instruction. This issue discusses the following topics: (1) Reading in the First Grade: Now or Never? (2) Limitations and…

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 68 first graders to identify what ideas young readers hold about the reading process. Specifically, the study questioned whether good and poor readers held the same views about how they learned to read, what they and others did as they read, their reading ability, and why people read. The responses of…

This selective bibliography is one of nine documents compiled to provide titles and descriptions of useful and informative reading documents which were indexed into the ERIC system from 1966 to 1974. The 131 entries in this section of the bibliography concern reading readiness and are arranged alphabetically by author in one of the following eight…

The primary purpose of this study was to assess the use of young children's artwork in the assessment of reading abilities. The research method for the study was qualitative, and the design followed an interpretive approach. Subjects were 12 transitional-first grade students (a transitional-first grade allows a child with normal academic ability…

Examined first-year results of the Success for All (SFA) program, designed to bring every student to grade level in reading by third grade. Found that SFA benefits were most significant at the kindergarten level; teachers were highly accepting of the program; and the program's strengths included cooperative learning, regrouping, tutoring, early…

This is book one in a series of beginning readers in Spanish for preschool and grade one. The program is designed to prepare children to read in Spanish by teaching the sound-symbol relationship in sequential order with simple reading selections. This book introduces the consonants "m,""p,""s,""l," and the…

Describes a course that linked first-grade students using emergent writing skills with university early-childhood majors studying the process of emergent literacy, and, in so doing provided an authentic and meaningful learning context for both groups. Suggests that the pen-pal project demonstrates the value of interactive writing exchanges.…

This report summarizes research on the impacts of alternative early intervention programs to prevent school failure. Also considered are the magnitude of estimates of program effects and policy implications of using the programs. The nine principal types of early schooling programs reviewed are those involving: (1) substantial reductions in class…

To evaluate the 1987 Compensatory Language Experiences and Reading (CLEAR)-Reading Recovery Summer Project undertaken in the Columbus, Ohio Public Schools, data on reading improvement of 59 first grade pupils from Douglas Alternative School were collected. The objective of the 5-week, 3-hour-per-day-program was to give students enough instruction…

An examination is made of proposals for early reading in terms of the best time for beginning instruction and the effects upon children. In any discussion regarding early reading one must distinguish between prereading activities and formal reading instruction and must determine whether formal instruction is intended for all children or for those…

This report provides a description and evaluation of two school programs in New York City. The programs are English as a Second language at P.S. 152, and the Early Identification Program at P.S. 139. Both were planned with the participation of the principal, the parents, and the school district staff. The first program was designed to supplement…

Sixty-five first graders from various sociocultural backgrounds and their parents/caregivers participated in a study designed to look at the relationship between home literacy environments and children's motivations for reading. Each child completed a Motivations for Reading interview, and parents of all children were interviewed regarding their…

This study investigated the ability of temporal processing measures obtained before school entry to predict early reading development in an unselected sample of 125 children (68 males, 57 females). Visual and auditory temporal order judgment (TOJ) tasks measured at Preschool (mean age 5.36 years) significantly predicted letter and word…