This study examines the relations among the classroom literacy environment, children's interest and engagement in literacy activities, and children's early reading skills in a sample of 167 children aged 4 and 5 years enrolled in 31 Head Start classrooms. Researchers rated the classroom literacy environment. Teachers reported on children's…

Among the CRAFT project total population of 1,378 disadvantaged urban children, 58, or 4 percent, were identified at the beginning of first grade as early readers on the basis of their ability to identify words in print. All children in the study were taught to read by either the Skills Centered or the Language Experience Approach. Achievement…

Use of the syllable as a unit for initial acquisition of reading is advocated. It is argued that since English alphabetic writing is based on a mapping between sound-stream and symbol, a decoding approach is necessary at early stages of the acquisition process. However, conventional phonics methods confound two very difficult tasks in initial…

This study examined a new screening tool (Get Ready to Read) for assessing early reading skills in 73 three-year-old and 79 four-year-old children from low-income families and relating performance to more extensive assessments of phonological sensitivity and language skills (vocabulary and print knowledge) that have been found to be related to the…

THIS EXTENSIVE REPORT DESCRIBES THE CONTINUATION OF A PROJECT WHICH INVESTIGATED THE READING PROGRESS OF DISADVANTAGED URBAN NEGRO CHILDREN FROM FIRST THROUGH THIRD GRADE USING TWO BASIC TEACHING APPROACHES. THE PROJECT OPERATED IN TWELVE NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. SPECIFICALLY DESCRIBED ARE THE SECOND-GRADE CONTINUATION PROCEDURES,…