This book, which uses nursery rhymes as its literature base, represents a non-threatening approach to beginning reading for children in kindergarten through grade 3. The book uses a variety of cross-curricular activities which are built around four familiar nursery rhymes. The book's introduction describes how each rhyme may be used over a 5-day…

This book helps teachers and media directors to use children's literature to enrich elementary reading programs and to pursue sound educational objectives as they share the books and stories. It provides activities designed to expand and enrich the opportunities for children to become literate. It is a tool which addresses the need for children to…

This book examines the studies of leading researchers who have testified in various hearings and promoted policy and legislation on behalf of skills-emphasis learning, especially those financed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The book not only identifies each claim, it also analyzes the research that backs…

This book is the third in a series of books for a literature-inspired curriculum for grades 1-3 organized around thematic units. The book's "story stretchers" are a means to extend children's enthusiasm for stories and to better connect children's books and teaching ideas with other areas of the curriculum. The book contains 18 units or…

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…

Applying the whole language perspective across the primary-grade curriculum, this book presents 10 essays that describe first-, second-, and third-grade classrooms where teachers find authentic, meaningful ways for children to communicate about their lives and what they are learning. Essays in the book demonstrate numerous whole language…

This resource book contains a whole-language, extended thematic unit about the ways in which all people are the same. The book includes the following sections: (1) "Everybody Eats Food"; (2) "Everybody Wears Clothes"; (3) "Everybody Needs a Place to Live"; (4) "Everybody Communicates"; (5) "Everybody Uses Transportation"; (6) "Everybody Goes to…

This book is based on research conducted in a bilingual, (Spanish and English) working-class neighborhood third-grade classroom. It is a qualitative, ethnographic study of the classroom as a system that uses exemplary teaching to show how whole language learning can be explained as a tension between personal invention and social convention. The…

This book presents results of a longitudinal study of the effects of whole language instruction on six first- and second-grade African-American students at risk of failure. The book has three levels of meaning: how teachers engage children in genuine literacy, how the process of engaging in a literate community increases learning, and how truly…

Drawing on an array of research on the nature and development of reading proficiency, this book argues that educators need not remain trapped in the phonics versus teaching-for-meaning dilemma and offers instructional alternatives. The book proposes that phonics can work together with the whole language approach to reading and provides an…

This publication investigates what happened when a Chicago public school first-grade teacher radically changed her teaching practice and embraced a holistic literary approach. The practice of shifting patterns of control in the classroom and the construction of knowledge in a setting where most children are bilingual is explored. The nine chapters…

This book emphasizes the reading process by suggesting effective ways to read with children, to engage children as thinkers, and to model the processes of studying a text. The book's "story stretchers" are a means to extend children's enthusiasm for stories and to better connect children's books and teaching ideas with other areas of the…

Teachers are faced with the effects of the fragmentation of the family structure and an increasing number of children who are neglected, misbehave, and have trouble with learning. This book offers a solution to teachers in a system bound by legal educational requirements based on the various labels given children in schools today. The book is…

This nontechnical guide for parents and teachers examines learning to read from infants' babbling to the fluent reading of children reading independently for pleasure. Chapter 1, "Baby Speaks," describes language development in infancy. Chapter 2, "Our Alphabet: Language by Ear and by Eye," presents the alphabetic system and…

Applying the conditions of natural learning to create caring kindergarten classroom environments may support students as lifelong learners. This book presents a natural learning classroom model for implementing a whole-language approach in kindergarten. The chapters are as follows: (1) "My Beliefs about How Children Learn"; (2) "Applying Whole…