The authors of this article report on a preliminary study of 18, 4- and 5-year-old children, followed by a longitudinal study of 44 children, who were tested in the first, second, and third grades. The children's ability to detect the ambiguity of lexically ambiguous sentences (e. g., "The children saw the bat lying by the fence") and…

PIRLS is the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. This rigorous international survey compares the reading attainment and attitudes to reading of over 200,000 9- and 10-year-old children in 41 countries. It is the only international study to provide information on the reading habits of primary-aged children: the survey collects…

This research synthesis identifies areas of convergence in reading research regarding the importance, dimensions, and effects of phonological awareness on the reading acquisition process. It also highlights similarities and differences between normal achievers and diverse learners. The following five areas of research convergence are identified:…

Prepared by teachers in a summer course, this handbook presents brief descriptions of various aspects of reading instruction and related lesson plans and class activities. Beginning with brief biographies of 5 leaders in reading education (both living and deceased), the handbook consists of sections that discuss reading readiness; word…

Noting that parent involvement could be the single most important factor in children's success in school, this book helps parents act as tutors in reading and writing for their kindergarten children. It offers both general guidelines and specific strategies and activities to use for accomplishing specific objectives, such as improving decoding…

This is the second of two studies of Ohio's Head Start programs conducted by the Legislative Office of Education (LOEO) of Ohio. The first study described the implementation of Head Start in Ohio. This study looked at the impact of Head Start's education component by examining urban kindergarten students on selected measures of school readiness.…

That the emergent literacy perspective is gaining influence in the United States as a way of studying children's literacy acquisition. This report interprets emergent literacy research in light of the Vygotskian theory of learning and development. First, the report compares the emergent literacy perspective to the more traditional reading…

An instructional program, based on the instructional systems design model, was developed to assist at-risk students at a New York State elementary school in decoding the consonants b, d, t, and s. Eight first-grade students who displayed difficulty in decoding words participated in the program which took place in a "reading corner" set up within…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: The kindergarten staff at H. A. Snow School has devised a series of homework idea sheets, to accompany the readiness program that is taught weekly in the kindergarten classrooms. Beginning in early October, we introduce an alphabet letter each Monday. During the week, all subject areas are focused…

Designed to reveal children's awareness of print and use of contextual clues and to discover their metalinguistic awareness, language use, and attitudes toward reading and writing, this instrument consists of six tasks. The first three, print awareness tasks, present familiar labels and signs with different degrees of contextuality. The fourth and…

The criteria developed by the NCTE Committee on Curriculum Bulletins for the evaluation of reading programs are presented and explained. (JH)

A year-long, quasi-experimental study investigated the comparative effects of a whole language approach and a code emphasis approach upon the emergent literacy of 53 girls in two kindergarten classes in an all girls' parochial school in the Northeast. Subjects in the experimental class received instruction in Holdaway's Shared Book Experience…

During the 1985-1986 school year the Instructional Aide Program served 2,370 pupils in kindergarten and first grade in the Columbus Public Schools. The program provided educational support for underachieving pupils by training and placing 124 aides in the classrooms of 227 teachers. The aides provided direct instruction to pupils under the…

Young learners need a quality program for developing reading skills which is both sequential and holistic--sequential because there is an appropriate order to some skills, holistic because skills need to be incorporated in context. Word recognition techniques are thus integrated with ideas gleaned from reading. The learner should use acquired…

This resource guide provides a set of assessment instruments to help the adult basic education teacher appropriately place each learner at Level I, Level II, and/or General Education Development Level of instruction. An introduction briefly describes instruments and suggests examples of implementation. A teacher's guide contains general directions…