This study investigated children's preference and comprehension responses to stories in which both male and female main characters were represented in traditional and nontraditional roles, and stories in which only the opposite sex main characters were portrayed in those roles. A total of 218 girls and 169 boys from grades five and six (all with…

A child's sense of involvement in story and desire to meaningfully experience literature must be sustained and promoted if the problem of "literacy" is to be resolved. Four activities, designed as a series of stages, can enhance the literary experience of children. The first activity is reading to children--exposing them to the language…

THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY WAS TO EXAMINE THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF STORIES AND STORY BOOKS ON 142 PRESCHOOL CHILDREN INCLUDING 46 NEGROES (N.Y. AND CALIF.), 22 PUERTO RICANS (N.Y.), 10 MEXICANS (CALIF.), 16 SIOUX (S. DAKOTA) AND 48 NAVAJO (ARIZ. - N. MEXICO) BY MEANS OF STANDARDIZED RETELLING OF STORIES. A FURTHER AIM WAS TO DISCOVER PATTERNS OF…

The theme of this report is that recent theory and research related to the cognitive domain of children's comprehension of stories have implications for the social domain of children's understanding of interpersonal interaction, since there are important overlaps between the abilities necessary to comprehend stories about social events and those…

This document reports the findings of a study of children's comprehension of stories containing inconsistent information. The subjects were 84 children in kindergarten and the second, fourth and sixth grades. Twelve subjects from each grade listened to two stories and twelve other subjects from grades 2, 4, and 6 read two stories. Each subject was…

The study was designed to determine whether inner-city children of various ethnic groups prefer suburban or inner-city story settings. Subjects (Ss) participating were first-grade pupils from two large urban school districts in California and Texas. The student population in one school in each district was almost exclusively Negro; the population…

Fourteen strategies a hard-of-hearing mother uses while reading a book with her hard-of-hearing preschool son are observed. These strategies are grouped in four large categories: (1) confirmation of child's understanding; (2) focusing attention on the book and its content; (3) specific language input; (4) concept development. (Author/LMO)

Discusses the use of story frames as a strategy for teaching reading comprehension to first grade students, and includes examples of student responses. (JC)

The purpose of this article is to familiarize English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors with the effectiveness of using literature in language instruction. While some instructors may still believe that teaching EFL encompasses focusing on linguistic benefits only, so eventually their students will communicate in the target language, others…

Recent research shows that of all the subjects in the curriculum, primary (elementary) teachers in Great Britain felt least confident about technology. This book presents stories from history along with accompanying projects to teach technology in the primary grades. By focusing on technology in history, students were steered away from the…

The electronic storybook may be one tool that can simulate the read aloud story by a human reader. If the electronic story can serve to provide some of the elements derived from a human book reading experience, then time spent with these electronic stories can give children some building blocks that will aid in their literacy acquisition. A study…

Noting that reading aloud to preschool children significantly influences their reading development, this master's thesis examines the many benefits from reading aloud to preschoolers. The thesis reviews research indicating that when parents read aloud, they help their children learn vocabulary, complex sentence structure, and story structure.…

Analysis of survey responses of 57 teachers of the deaf (preschool-grade 4) concerning their practices of reading aloud to children found that teachers spent more time reading aloud for pleasure than for content and that they used such techniques as discussing characters, setting, and vocabulary to mediate the text for students before, during, and…

This article presents an overview of phonological awareness, print awareness, and oral language development and discusses the critical role they play in emergent literacy. Recent research is reviewed and strategies are provided for promoting emergent literacy through each of these areas in the preschool classroom. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Studied the interactions, goals, and purposes of four mothers as they shared two narrative and two expository texts with their preschoolers. Results suggest that there is no one path to becoming literate, nor one single "correct" model of development. Literacy learning is an activity that involves the collaboration of parents and…