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.…

Drawing from a four-year critical ethnographic study of young girls and their literacy practices inside and outside school, this article foregrounds a lived pedagogical moment when conflicting discourses about reading instruction collided in a critically focused second-grade classroom. Through my analyses I make the argument that the pervasiveness…

This study examined the relations among features of the classroom physical literacy environment (book materials, literacy area and writing materials) and psychological literacy environment (instructional support), and preschool children's gains in two areas of emergent literacy over an academic year. Results showed that features of the physical…

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…

This study reports the construction of the Dialogic Reading Inventory (DRI), a tool for assessing a parent and child's storybook reading behaviors. Twenty-three parent-child dyads participated in the study. The Adult-Child Interactive Reading Inventory (DeBruin-Parecki, 1999) items were grouped into four categories and revised to reflect current…

Lexia Reading is a computerized reading program that provides phonics instruction and gives students independent practice in basic reading skills. Lexia Reading is designed to supplement regular classroom instruction. It is designed to support skill development in the five areas of reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel. The…

In order to be a good reader, your child must be able to do two things at the same time: (1) decode the words on the page and (2) understand what the words mean. Early reading instruction focuses on teaching a child how to read single words. But being good at reading single words is not the only skill your child needs. Once your child has become…

Reviews information from documents in the ERIC system that deal with such matters as whether preschool children should be taught to read and, if so, whether instruction should be formal or informal. (DD)

A disproportionate emphasis on mechanics impairs students' reading by detracting from the focus they should have on making sense of the world. (DD)

This paper discusses some of the issues in early reading instruction to be presented at Institute X. The issues discussed include sight word lists for beginning readers, choosing instructional methods in reading that complement individuals' learning styles, a pragmatic approach to teaching reading comprehension, literal reading comprehension, the…

This article reviews the literature and practice (especially in New Mexico) concerning reading instruction of gifted children. It considers early or "precocious" reading, instruction in the early grades, and identification of the gifted in New Mexico. Reading teachers in New Mexico are urged to be aware of specific conflicts in the area…

This project report describes pilot programs of the Ames Community School District for two school years, 1973-74 and 1974-75. The purposes of the pilot programs were to ascertain whether objectives were met, to consider the appropriateness of activities and materials, to determine the validity of the test measure, to assess the degree to which…

This paper discusses some of the larger trends in present day American society and education, indicates how these trends are affecting reading, and points out some possible directions for future development. The trends discussed include "Sex Equality," which discusses sexism in basal tests, male teachers of reading, and the greater number of boys…

Collected in this document are seven papers presented at the Ohio Conference on Reading and Early Childhood: (1) "Kids," Jerome Kagen; (2) "Parents as Partners," Christine F. Branche; (3) "When the Young Child Finds Importance in Reading," Leland B. Jacobs; (4) "Four Questions on Early Childhood Education,"…

The purpose of this study was to measure the gains that culturally different 4-year-old children made in reading readiness activities and the acquisition of a sight vocabulary when exposed to an extensive prekindergarten reading intervention program. The subjects of the study were selected initially from a group of volunteer families. The subjects…