One of the most important skills for children to develop in the kindergarten year is the recognition that letters and sounds are related. It is often called "the alphabetic principle"--the notion that speech sounds can be connected to letters in a predictable way. To grasp the alphabetic principle, children need to understand that: (1) letters…

Proposes teaching only language arts for three years for children from poor families who do not emphasize reading. Suggests methods including teacher and student story telling; story reading; practicing letter formations; singing or talking along with records or videotapes; discussing word meanings; reading poetry; and story writing with corrected…