In elementary school, an important goal of reading instruction is to enable children to read most words automatically by sight so that they can focus on learning from and enjoying what they are reading. But becoming a strong reader takes several years. Parents and caregivers need to know if a child is making good progress in learning to read.…

The question of script was paramount in the nineteenth-century debate over Hindi and Urdu, two closely related languages that are characterised by "extreme digraphia". Rather than rehearsing the well-known story of the culturally and politically charged process of differentiation in which the two sister languages became prime markers of…

Throughout the school year I invited children in a Grade Two/Three learning strategies classroom to participate in a visual narrative inquiry. The intention was to explore children's knowledge of community in artful ways; the children photographed and wrote in what was often an iterative process, where writing/talking and photographing…

Describes a computer program to help young children learn about the alphabet and about the location of alphabet keys on computer keyboards. Includes a complete program listing. (Author/JN)

Presents some examples of bilingual and Spanish materials that can be prepared in the classroom based on current practical theories on the teaching of literacy. Describes ways to incorporate the alphabet into bilingual activities. Considers the use of an illustrated songbook. (SG)

Described is an animated computer program designed to help the young child match lowercase and uppercase letters. Used was the Intecolor 8052 personal computer made by Intelligent Systems Corporation (ISC), but the program could also be written for the Radio Shack TRS-80, PET, Apple, Atari, and ISCs Compucolor II. (KC)