A study examined the practitioner's perspective of literature and how literature is being used in the classroom. Teachers, librarians, and administrators at a suburban school serving over 700 children from kindergarten through fifth grade were interviewed, and professional journals directed toward practitioners, published curriculum guides, and…

The purpose of this book on reading instruction in the elementary school is twofold: firstly, to share with colleagues some of the significant works of research and theory that suggest answers to important questions about reading instruction, and secondly, to describe specific teaching strategies implied by these answers. The book assumes that…

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…

Noting that parents have considerable influence on their children's learning during the process of general socialization, this paper reviews literature from primary and post primary schools about involving parents with their children's reading development. Following an introduction which summarizes the pertinent literature, the first section…

The progress, development, and evaluation of the Writing to Read computer program developed by John Henry Martin are detailed in the three sections of this paper. Describing the program as a writing-to-read system that relies initially on children's phonetic spelling--letting the sounds uttered be coded without attention to the inconsistencies of…

THIS TWO-YEAR BEGINNING READING SERIES WAS PREPARED BY A GROUP OF LINGUISTS WHICH INCLUDED RALPH F. ROBINETT, PAULINE M. ROJAS, AND PAUL W. BELL, IN COOPERATION WITH THE DADE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS, FLORIDA. (SEE RELATED DOCUMENTS ED 001 693, ED 001 694, ED 001 695, AND ED 001 696.) THIS REVISED EXPERIMENTAL EDITION COMPRISES 10 PRE-PRIMERS,…

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…

Papers presented suggest a variety of views aimed at helping the teacher become more proficient in using children's literature in teaching reading. David C. Davis points out the need for developing programs in which books are selected on their literary quality, not on tastes or personal points of view. William G. McCarthy discusses the…

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…

Bucking a longstanding tradition of local control, the Idaho Legislature launched mandatory statewide standards in reading in 1999. The Idaho Reading Indicator now monitors the progress of early readers three times a year. Innovative local strategies to help struggling readers are described, and the importance of a systemic approach to reform and…

Early reading should be studied from three perspectives: the function of print, the form of print, and the conventions of print. In so doing, it may be possible to avoid some of the hazards that have plagued the field, such as unsubstantiated assumptions about beginning reading and how it should be taught, erroneous beliefs that maturation plays…

Research shows that there are many possible positive effects of early bilingual reading upon intellectual growth and general education. An Italian research project dealing with early bilingual literacy is described; the teaching methods used in the project are examined. (RM)

Examines the attitudes, experiences, and practices of parents towards reading, and how this affected their children. Although many parents actively promoted reading at home, they lacked confidence in their abilities and expressed a desire for training and assistance. Discovers a need for greater communication between parents and teachers. (MJP)

The concept of scaffolding can be used as a framework to argue that a "rich interpretation" in child language is needed in the area of early literacy learning. Child language is the reading-like text language of "prereading" kindergarten children. Two threads (internal and external) of the scaffolding process have been identified. The external…

Memorable language that delights children, makes them laugh or gasp, or causes them to ponder and wonder is the literature that will begin the process of teaching them to read and write. Literature is meant to connect, not with reason primarily, but with readers' and listeners' imaginations and emotions, and in the case of poetry, with something…