Proposes using Abenaki American Indian tales to teach children the lessons needed to maintain a balance between people and nature. Describes the Abenaki people of New England, and provides a story to teach four lessons for survival: silence, respect, sharing, and circles. (MDH)

Presents suggestions for developing a thematic teaching unit to help students overcome fear by learning about the courage of survivors in literature. The article recommends reading a story aloud, discussing courage and survival of the characters, and developing group-guided reading activities that involve individual or group projects. (SM)

Suggests that, although sharing good books is often reserved for more fluent second language learners, children in English-as-a-Second-Language classes can also benefit. Literature is shown to offer the sound of the language, universality of study, and cultural information. (nine references) (Author/LB)

Reading is an act of identity making. Because readers must complete the act of meaning making, the context and conditions of reading alter the shape of the storytelling event and the trajectory of meaning. This paper explains reading identity and pedagogy, providing techniques one professor used when teaching two novels (marking, tracing,…

Characterizes the influence of various conditions of word exposure upon children's receptive and expressive learning of novel words occurring within storybook reading interactions with adults. Examines adults' questioning versus labeling of novel words and adults' use of perceptual versus conceptual questions about novel words. Suggests that…

Investigates development of vocabulary knowledge in fourth graders as a function of story reading for partially known and unknown words. Finds vocabulary growth was small but even for both partially known and unknown words; however, the characteristics of the words being learned themselves (particularly, part of speech and concreteness) were more…

In this study, 5- and 6-year-olds were read a story and asked to recall its details. Two independent factors-prestory knowledge and poststory suggestions-were crossed to examine the effects on children's story recall. The results indicated that prestory social knowledge about the story protagonist as well as academic knowledge relating to the…

The interactions of 24-, 30-, and 36-month-old children and their mothers reading two initially unfamiliar books were observed three times over a 2-week period. Coding characterized both the content and the role of their utterances as they discussed the stories. Utterance content depended on child age but changed little with increasing story…

Storybook reading in child care classrooms typically occurs in one large group, a context that does not provide opportunities for each child to talk about the book. Two-year-old children, in particular, need individual support to facilitate their language participation, and they want to touch the book and be close to the teacher. The purpose of…

When sharing stories with children they often embody the characters, and participate in the actions of the book without even thinking about it. Their wiggles and shouts would tell that they are "in" the story. Children's spontaneous movements, sounds, and rhythms allow them to become part of the story's action. In this article, the author suggests…

Using the format of a false belief task (Wimmer & Perner, 1983), we investigated the ability of 88 3- and 4-year-olds to ascribe a previously held true belief to a story protagonist. In an unexpected transfer task, children found true belief ascription as difficult as false belief ascription even though they could answer memory questions about…

The study of astronomy, as an important part of any science education programme, provides our students with insights into more than just the cosmos. It may also serve as a mechanism to link them to other natural and social sciences. This article examines equally valid interpretations of the constellation Canes Venatici as an example of how the…

This study investigated the family reading behavior of 233 preschool children from low-income backgrounds who were attending Head Start. Parents completed a survey of their family reading behavior, including Child Reading, Parent Reading Interest, and Parent-Child Reading Interaction, and provided demographic data on their educational level,…

Mothers read stories to their children (N = 41) aged between 3.3 years and 5.11 years old, and children then completed two false-belief tasks. One year later, mothers read a story to 37 of those children who were also given four tasks to assess their advanced understanding of mental states. Mothers' early use of cognitive verbs in picture-book…

Early childhood teachers are faced with many more choices and decisions regarding the development of their curriculum than ever before. The development of state standards for young children in prekindergarten (pre-K) programs not only provides guidance but also places demands on content that must be addressed. Finding the time to plan creative…