Emphasizing the significance and delight of using storybooks as a means of entering the world of children, this book looks at the relationship between play and child development, the use of stories to foster genuine human relationships, and the creation of meaningful environments, curriculum, and materials derived from the themes and concepts…

Various lines of research demonstrate that children do not need intensive phonics instruction to develop the functional command of letter/sound patterns that they need as readers. The fact that children normally learn highly complex processes and systems by merely interacting with the external world is perhaps the most important reason why…

This article describes the whole-language philosophy of teaching reading and writing and its application to teaching braille reading to blind children. It suggests activities that are effective for enhancing the development of early reading behaviors in children who use braille and that integrate the critical components of literacy learning with…

Whole language represents only one of many good concepts about teaching reading to children, but it is not for everybody. Because whole language is a philosophy rather than a specific method, educational practitioners can incorporate different aspects of this philosophy to different degrees. If teachers think of a continuum of theoretical bases…

Giving teachers who are developing a literature-based program a place to start, this book provides a range of techniques, ideas, and strategies for the classroom. The book is intended for all teachers and parents interested in the role that literature can play in learning to read. The book addresses three main topics: the power of literature in…

Combining developmentally appropriate early childhood practice with current views of emergent literacy and whole language instruction, this book is designed to help pre-service and in-service teachers incorporate new views of literacy into their classrooms. The book includes extensive examples from actual classrooms to assist readers in…

Offering detailed, culturally diverse examples of practical applications in real classroom settings, this book provides preservice and inservice elementary school teachers with everything needed to set up workshop environments and procedures that develop children's talk, reading, writing skills, and critical thinking. The book features highly…

Noting that more and more teachers are persuaded by the wisdom of teaching reading and writing together and keeping an emphasis on understanding children's early literacy learning, this third edition refines the presentation of two earlier editions to make it more useful for teachers who are setting up and teaching emergent literacy programs. The…

This book shows elementary school teachers how to help students become confident readers and writers who can use skills they acquire throughout their lives, from a constructivist orientation. It is intended as a main text for an introductory course on elementary-school reading instruction, typically taken by undergraduates in their second or third…

This book describes a whole language program that has as its ultimate goal the creation of students who read competently, critically, and joyfully, far beyond the classroom door. The book urges teachers to move beyond the skills-based approach and to embrace a philosophy that begins with the heart--rather than the head--of the learner. The book…

Helping teachers to discover approaches and techniques that fit their teaching style and their teaching situation, this book presents as fairly, completely, and clearly as possible the major approaches and techniques of reading instruction that research and practice have indicated to be successful. Based on the idea that the best reading programs…

Designed to help teachers think about, analyze, and make decisions on literacy instruction, this book provides the conceptual framework and methodology to put the ideas of Lev Vygotsky into practice for classroom literacy instruction. The book claims that Vygotsky's ideas provide a cohesive framework and an operational model that teachers can use…

A teacher of preschool and kindergarten students with hearing impairments recounts her increasing use of whole language, process-oriented teaching methods. Considers the teacher's new role, the classroom environment, use of thematic units, emergent reading, emergent writing, and evaluation. (DB)

This digest links the development of listening comprehension to the emerging reading comprehension of young American Indian students, and suggests ways that teachers can use locally produced materials to enhance young students' emergent literacy. Reading comprehension is the key to literacy, and prior knowledge supports listening and reading…

Developed as the basic text for preservice teachers in an elementary reading methods course, this book aims to develop insightful teachers empowered to make logical reflective decisions about reading instruction. The book is an integrative text, based on the assumption that effective teachers of reading must understand both what to do during…