Gives ways a parent can aid a child's involvement with words and language, and increase a child's pleasure in acting out stories. (GB)

Using student dictated stories to create class books is an exciting way to teach young children about books and writing. Children can thus use their own material as they learn to read, the books provide a class library, and writing through dictation allows young children to learn about reading and writing before they can read or write--even with…

An intensive 6-week summer readiness program held in the Beaver Area School District, Beaver, Pennsylvania, developed linguistic facility among 15 preschool children. Daily activities included discussion, picture study, creative arts, field trips, developing experience charts, and other nonlanguage arts activities. A combined experiential,…

The purpose of this publication is to provide kindergarten teachers with the rationale, ideas, and activities necessary for implementing an experience-based language/prereading program in their classrooms. The various sections contain a rationale for using language experience activities; suggestions for classroom management of such activities; and…

Parents and teachers are encouraged in this paper to provide home and school cognitive science activities to help their preschool-age children develop prereading skills. Many of the activities mentioned could be introduced prior to the age of 3 years and all by the age of 5 years. In general, activities that develop cognitive skills should precede…

This joint statement expresses concerns about present practices in pre-first grade reading instruction and makes recommendations for improvement. The statement was prepared by seven organizations concerned with preschool education and/or reading instruction. (BD)

A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF ATTENDING AN 8-WEEK HEADSTART PROGRAM DURING THE SUMMER PRIOR TO THE FIRST GRADE ON THE FIRST-GRADE READING ACHIEVEMENT OF 152 PUPILS IN SCOTT COUNTY, KENTUCKY, INDICATED A NEED FOR A CLASSROOM CONTINUATION OF THE EXPERIENCE APPROACH IN READING METHODS. AT THE OPENING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR, THE HEADSTART PUPILS WERE MIXED IN…

The central focus of this second edition is the same as that of the first edition: to describe the language-experience approach and to identify instructional practices which can be followed to teach reading with this approach. In addition, the volume expands the theoretical foundations of language-experience communication, extends the…

Children exposed to the Language Experience Approach are able to conceptualize that what they think about they can say; what they say can be written or dictated to the teacher; what has been written can be read; and that they can read what they have written, and what others have written for them to read. It is recommended that a child first begin…

The inclusion of talk, written language, and body language are critically important in primary classrooms. Although reading and writing may be regarded as cognitive activities, they are embedded in a social/cultural milieu, and the practice of mechanical decoding as a necessary precedent to real reading is not pedagogically sound. A whole class…

When used diagnostically at the readiness level, language-experience becomes an effective way to meet individual differences and to differentiate instruction in a group setting. For a 5- or 6-year old, school should be an exciting, happy, purposeful place, and language-experience lends itself well to such a setting. The first steps are to…

Based on information gained in two longitudinal research studies of the beginning reading process, this book offers insights into the detection and prevention of reading failure. The 13 chapters of the book deal with the following topics: barriers to the early identification of reading problems, preschool experiences, school entry, early reading…

The product of a two-year study investigating the literacy behavior of nine kindergarten students and their classmates, this report first explains the impetus and the theoretical foundations for the investigation and describes its subjects and setting. It then presents the methodology and the data collected from several related studies: (1)…

This digest links the development of listening comprehension to the emerging reading comprehension of young American Indian students, and suggests ways that teachers can use locally produced materials to enhance young students' emergent literacy. Reading comprehension is the key to literacy, and prior knowledge supports listening and reading…

Seventy-eight kindergarten children were randomly placed in four experimental classrooms. Two of the classes were taught with the basal reader approach to reading readiness, and two were taught with the conceptual-language program approach. An extensive pretest battery was given to these children in October 1967. Instruction in the two approaches…