Describes how children develop printed word knowledge when taught with a top-down, sentence-based approach. Cites four stages in word knowledge development: word as a nameable object in text; word as an object with a beginning element; word as an object with a discernible beginning and end; and word as an object with a beginning, middle, and end.…

Discusses whole-language classrooms as ones that create and nurture a morality of caring. Lists ways in which teachers can facilitate growth of the ethic of caring in the classroom-- helping children to become "other centered"--whereby a community of responsible, concerned, and empathetic children emerges, and the classroom models the…

As experiences of two first graders show, learning occurs in split-second initiatives that children take with others as they try to attend, engage, interact, communicate, and reason. Before children can learn reading, writing, and arithmetic, they must know how to learn. Children cannot learn two-way communication with gestures, words, or symbols…