Ensuring effective texts for student reading acquisition is a shared goal. This paper addresses the efficacy of decodable and leveled texts, their word features, and outcomes of reorganizing texts by vowel patterns and topics. Sparse evidence supports one text type's superiority in building a strong reading foundation. Further, the decoding…

Reading and writing are often taught separately. This article explores the crucial relations between these skills, emphasizing the importance of understanding the "what" and "why" to effectively plan the "how" of integrated reading-writing instruction. The Interactive Dynamic Literacy Model (Kim, "Reading-writing…

This article discusses language comprehension and developing skills with emergent readers, in particular verbal reasoning and language structures, that are necessary for later reading comprehension.

In a "post-truth" era in which misinformation permeates digital environments, it is critical for teachers to help students develop media literacy skills by analyzing and evaluating media messages. Through these processes, English language arts teachers can also help students develop digital citizenship skills, in which they can analyze…

This article explores learning through modes of signification in literacy activity books for early childhood learners in Kenya. These modes of signification are important for the cognitive and social development of children. Early childhood education in Kenya aims to prepare children for primary school by building foundational skills in a…

In primary-grade classrooms, young children are expected to participate in rich conversations as they build their speaking and listening skills. One way to support students' success with these types of conversations is to explicitly teach them academic conversation skills. Academic conversations are intentional, focused on school-related topics,…

This article describes how preschool-age children can engage with recipes as a genre for reading, writing, and play. This formative/design study was conducted by a teacher researcher partnership in a linguistically and socioeconomically diverse public early learning center. Through home engagements, the research team identified cooking as a site…

Young children's meaning-focused skills are foundational for reading comprehension and begin to develop prior to formal reading instruction. In this article, we argue for the importance of supporting meaning-focused skills in early childhood classrooms. We describe authentic, real-life examples of engaging preschool children in activities that…

Supporting early writing skills in pre-kindergarten lays an important foundation for later writing achievement as well as reading achievement. Specifically, encouraging children to write affords teachers the opportunity to provide scaffolds to improve spelling development. Teachers, however, tend to provide more support than necessary to guide…

A hallmark of skilled reading is recognizing written words automatically from memory by sight. How beginning readers attain this skill is explained. They must acquire foundational knowledge, including phonemic segmentation, grapheme-phoneme knowledge, decoding, and spelling skills. When these skills are applied, spellings of words become bonded to…

Young children's engagement with digital tools (e.g., tablets, smartphones, ebooks/storyapps, and mobile apps) is increasing globally. This is inevitable in our digital world. Even though children primarily use digital technology for entertainment purposes, these tools offer valuable learning opportunities too. Importantly, adults can provide and…

The authors explored the impact of a novel, interactive performing arts-based program on students' writing skills. The program featured the Story Pirates, a group that teaches children how to write stories and then turns their stories into a musical sketch comedy show. Written stories from the third-grade students in an elementary school were…

As the popularity of project-based learning grows, so does the importance of understanding how this instructional approach can support students' learning and development. The authors describe a project-based approach to literacy and social studies instruction that research has shown to be effective. Key characteristics of the approach and…

Literature circles undoubtedly foster literacy, but successful participation in literature circles requires students' social and emotional competence. The author presents findings from a study of a fifth-grade student who demonstrated socioemotional growth while participating in literature circles. Specifically, growth in intrapersonal and…

College and career readiness has become a top priority for elementary schools. Skills-focused approaches often are the sole method of preparing students for their postsecondary futures, which can overshadow the identities that students bring to the classroom. In contrast, the authors adopted an identity-centered approach to literacy instruction…