Urges teachers and community leaders to come together to decide how schools can be "restructured in their core elements--grades, sports, teacher-pupil relations--to make them sources of ethical conduct rather than training grounds for cheating and coping with arbitrary authority". Also warns that early reading can suppress the creative…

The definitions of and differences between language acquisition and learning in early reading are discussed. Preschool children who are bilingual can learn to read Spanish more easily than English; early and bilingual reading would be a great educational benefit. (CHK)

Argues that wordless books allow prereading children to create their own stories, enhance vocabulary acquisition, help children develop "top to bottom" and "right to left" concepts, and promote observation, sequential, visual, and inferential thinking. Describes several ways to use wordless books. Includes bibliography of 36…

Explores recurring themes in early childhood education that strengthen professional identity and commitment. Historical issues of continuing relevance are discussed, including school entrance age, kindergarten and early reading, child care services as social change agents, increase of child care services due to the changing role of women, and…

Explains that if the ability to read in the fullest sense can be fostered from infancy in and out of school, children will grow to be the highly literate society of tomorrow. (DF)

Describes a parent education project that recognized the importance of educating parents so that they would be able to help their youngsters in early reading development. (HOD)

Presents evidence that reading can be learned by the same informal and unstructured methods as speech, and calls for a concentration on slow readers. (CRH)

This indispensable resource offers a cutting-edge framework and practical tools for screening and assessing K-2 students at risk for reading problems. Provided are critical reviews of 42 specific measures, selected for optimal technical quality and presented in a clear, standardized format. Encapsulated are the scientific basis for each…

Literacy development begins in the very early stages of childhood, even though the activities of young children may not seem related to reading and writing. In 1966, New Zealand researcher Marie Clay introduced the term "emergent literacy" to describe the behaviors seen in young children when they use books and writing materials to…

This book shows how to use popular children's literature to build reading, writing, and cognitive skills in an inquiry-based environment. This third edition has been expanded to include first and second grades. New features include: (1) new emphasis on culturally diverse storybooks; (2) a description of the experiential learning inquiry process;…

Describes a study conducted (1) to develop effective strategies whereby inner city schools obtain instructional support from a large proportion of parents, and (2) to examine the effectiveness of developed alternatives designed to maintain parents' continuing participation. (Author)

Authors investigated sex role steroetyping in three major areas: elementary school basal readers, educational achievement tests, and differential curricular requirements for males and females. (Editor)

A "Learning" magazine editor recommends five books for teachers: (1) "Hunger of Memory" (Richard Rodriguez); (2) "Cushla and Her Books" (Dorothy Butler); (3) "Uncivil Liberties" (Calvin Trillin); (4) "Selected Letters of James Thurber"; and (5) "The Selected Letters of Mark Twain." A…