Scores of children across the country do not read with comprehension, and literacy has become a national priority. This book defines and reviews 15 practical literacy approaches that teachers can use across all content areas and grade levels to help students develop essential literacy skills. This user-friendly resource provides strategies for…

Addressing the needs of English language learners, remedial readers, avid readers, gifted readers, dormant readers, reluctant readers, and readers in content areas, this book's goal is to help middle school teachers connect their students to reading. The book offers multiple lists of trade books that different types of middle school readers enjoy;…

Focusing on the not-yet-conventional ways in which young children write and read--their nature, contexts, and significance for continuing literacy development, this book presents the perspective that children's early reading and writing behaviors are not pre- anything, but are integral parts of an incipient language process. Following an…

Noting that some elementary school children may have difficulty learning to read using basal readers, this paper describes the successful implementation of the Big Books for Beginning Readers reading program in a California elementary school. The first section of the paper discusses the problems students were having with reading, including a lack…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 40 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects of oral reading of literature by teachers on reading attitudes of fourth grade students; (2) two instructional programs for teaching first grade…

The purpose of this applied dissertation was to examine the effects of a preschool emergent literacy program on young African American children from a low socioeconomic background. The preschool is located in an urban setting in North Carolina. All students participating in this study were identified as at-risk for school failure. The behavior and…

This report presents findings on the well-being of American children from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a longitudinal study conducted at 4 month intervals by the U.S. Census Bureau. Data were collected in fall 1994 and include a variety of indicators to portray children's experiences while growing up, such as differences…

The National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives (Rural Early Childhood), a research program of the Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute, and Child Trends analyzed data from two nationally representative samples of young children being followed in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study by the National Center for…

This issue focuses on practices that can help improve reading instruction and includes two announcements from Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL). It begins with a look at study groups, the practice of teachers getting together to focus on instructional practices and student learning. Stacey Joyner, a staff member of SEDL's Texas…

It is argued that despite a common assumption to the contrary, there is children's literature appropriate to students of English as a Second Language (ESL) aged 9-14. First, the unique needs and characteristics of the target population are examined. This population consists of limited-English-proficient speakers, usually immigrants or refugees…

This article begins with a section that describes cooperative learning and explains eight cooperative learning principles. The second section discusses the interface between cooperative learning and language pedagogy. Next is a section about the why and how of reading aloud by teachers. The heart of the article resides in the last and longest…

The road to becoming a reader begins the day a child is born and continues through the end of third grade. At that point, a child must read with ease and understanding to take advantage of the learning opportunities in fourth grade and beyond--in school and in life. Learning to read and write starts at home, long before children go to school. Very…

Noting that children s first words are exciting for parents to hear, this book describes how babies can "talk" before they learn to say actual words and shows ways parents can help babies learn language. The book addresses a neglected area in child development--how to help low literacy parents and parents for whom English is a Second…

The first National Paired Reading Conference decided to establish a Paired Reading Information Network and to publish a journal. This bulletin is a direct result of this decision. It contains eight conference papers (constituting the conference proceedings), six feature articles, and four short reports (all with an emphasis on the method of…

The eight papers constituting the Proceedings of the second National Paired Reading Conference are published in an annual bulletin of the Paired Reading Project, together with five feature articles, as follows: (1) "Paired Reading--History & Future" (R. Morgan); (2) "Crosland Moor Junior High School Paired Reading Projects with…