Contends that the methods used to measure literacy development of young British children lag behind understanding of how that literacy develops. Argues for new measures to assess children's early literacy, including their ways of responding to environmental print, sharing books and stories, and early writing. Discusses the placement of assessment…

Examines the oral language and related literacy performances of four four-year olds to determine the role and functions of oral language in prekindergarten classroom exchanges, writing episodes, and print-awareness tasks. Children who are adept in oral use of Halliday's seven functions have a developed sense of their culture's literacy and perform…

Reviews contributions made by Marie Clay to the field of reading instruction and literacy. Maintains that Clay refused to be drawn into the battle between the phonics and "whole-word" approaches to reading instruction. Discusses the current status of language instruction in Great Britain and Clay's continuing significance. (CFR)

Contends that becoming literate involves the socialization of attention. Discusses two modes of socialization, revealing and telling. Concludes that the final evaluation of any language theory is relevance to classroom practice. (CFR)

This study investigated the contextual, social, language, and learning factors that influence the success of Latino preschoolers transitioning to kindergarten. Data were collected on 112 Latino children who completed a four-week preschool program focusing on English language and school readiness skills. Predictive analyses indicate that their…

A study examined the effectiveness of a project to increase reading readiness skills. The targeted population consisted of kindergarten students in a growing middle class community located in northern Illinois. The problems of lack of reading readiness were documented through teacher observation and district assessment tools. Analysis of probable…

This practicum project developed and implemented a program to teach young children reading readiness skills before they entered first grade. A target group of 20 students ranging in age from 4 to 6 years old in an elementary school kindergarten class was established for the program. During the 12-week implementation, the target group participated…

This booklet describes techniques for teaching reading with teacher-made materials to students with autism. A modified language experience approach built around the Dolch Basic Sight Word List is used, incorporating familiar names and words of importance for each child. Readiness skills are incorporated into the approach as well as an emphasis on…

New views of intelligence and cognitive learning styles highlight ways to increase educational effectiveness by improving instructional methods. Research shows that both hemispheres of the brain play a role in learning, but evidence indicates that one hemisphere may be more aroused than the other in the case of a particular child. Individuals with…

The inclusion of talk, written language, and body language are critically important in primary classrooms. Although reading and writing may be regarded as cognitive activities, they are embedded in a social/cultural milieu, and the practice of mechanical decoding as a necessary precedent to real reading is not pedagogically sound. A whole class…

A study used the "Emergent Reading Ability Judgments for Favorite Storybooks" (ERAJFS) scale to provide an informative description of children's emergent reading behaviors during a school year. Subjects, children ranging in age from two and one half years to five years who were enrolled in a day care center classroom, took part in two…

Over 80 short activity ideas covering many areas of the curriculum are compiled for teachers of preschool, kindergarten, and the early grades. Six "readiness roundup" sections, which feature ideas for use in classroom learning centers, give activities for teaching: (1) likenesses and differences; (2) direction; (3) letter and sound…

Given preschool children's characteristically short attention spans and unpredictable interests, teachers can encourage early reading most effectively and appropriately through the systemization of informal or incidental, rather than formal, learning. They can make learning to read relevant to traditional preschool activities in a number of ways.…

A study investigated kindergarten children's awareness of how they are learning to read at home and in school. Fifty-six children were selected from two schools with contrasting instruction for beginning reading. Children were interviewed in kindergarten and first grade and asked questions designed to tap their awareness of how they were learning…

When used diagnostically at the readiness level, language-experience becomes an effective way to meet individual differences and to differentiate instruction in a group setting. For a 5- or 6-year old, school should be an exciting, happy, purposeful place, and language-experience lends itself well to such a setting. The first steps are to…