Background: Data on children's ability to answer assessment questions correctly paints an incomplete portrait of what they know and can do mathematically; yet, it remains a common basis for program evaluation. Indeed, pre-post-assessment correctness is necessary but insufficient evidence for making inferences about learning and program…

In this portrait, Maleka Donaldson vividly illustrates how two teachers in real-world, public school settings convey their expectations for kindergarten student performance and set the tone for learning from mistakes and feedback. Research in psychology and education has established the benefits of corrective feedback on learning but has not…

In-service and coaching can increase teachers' use of research-based practices. This study examined the effects of in-service training plus coaching that included preconference, side-by-side coaching, and feedback on kindergarten teachers' use of research-based strategies during beginning reading instruction. Teachers were trained to enhance…

Reading connected text--that is, multiple sentences related to each other-- requires greater skill than reading isolated words. To read and understand connected text, students must quickly recognize words, integrate what they are reading with their background knowledge, and monitor their comprehension. This document provides a summary of…

The objective of this study was to confirm the existence of knowledge relating to the cursive writing movement for French pupils in 3rd year of kindergarten, 2nd grade and 5th grade of elementary school. 141 pupils were asked to watch a visual presentation of cursive handwriting to determine whether they were able to detect violations of two rules…

The Center on Literacy and Deafness examined the language and reading progress of 336 young deaf and hard-of-hearing children in kindergarten, first and second grades on a series of tests of language, reading, and spoken and fingerspelled phonological awareness in the fall and spring of the school year. Children were divided into groups based on…

Now, more than ever, American students at all grade levels face intense pressure to increase academic performance--including kindergarteners. Given that prior research has well established that mistakes and corrective feedback are key elements of the learning endeavor, it is critical to closely examine teachers' mistake-related experiences within…

Purpose: Using a framework of culturally and linguistically responsive classroom management, this study employed both quantitative and qualitative analyses of ethnographic data to illustrate patterns of corrections/behavioral warnings in teacher-child interactions for an African American child in the classroom. Method: Three child participants and…

School-average achievement is often reported to have positive effects on individual achievement (peer spillover effect). However, it is well established that school-average achievement has negative effects on academic self-concept (big-fish-little-pond effect [BFLPE]) and that academic self-concept and achievement are positively correlated and…

This paper explores the classroom socialisation of a mundane institutional language policy regarding the use of the target language: Japanese. Based on audiovisual recordings in a Japanese as a heritage language (JHL) classroom, it analyses episodes when teachers initiated repair on children's novel English loanwords (i.e. English-based words…

Do learners of a second language (L2) need frequent contact with native speakers of that language in order to master its phonology? What if they hear audio recordings of native speakers and receive immediate corrective feedback about their perception? We used a randomized controlled experiment with 135 Chinese speakers (with English as their L2)…

Understand the science of reading and how to implement evidence-based instruction to increase the reading and writing achievement of pre-K-6 students, including those at risk for reading difficulties. Fully revised and updated, this core text covers the research base for structured literacy instruction and practical guidance on the essential…

This Kindergarten Teacher's Guide provides information for kindergarten teachers on how to support families as they practice foundational reading skills at home. It serves as a companion to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade. Both guides present four…

In this study, I explored children's development of rhythmic music literacy using a language acquisition paradigm. An emergent, constructivist curriculum was implemented over one academic year with 39 children, 5-8 years old. Children were involved in audiation-based active listening, singing, moving, chanting, and playing instruments and engaged…