Serving as a guide for teachers interested in implementing a whole language philosophy within their classrooms and as a resource for teachers who have whole language classrooms, this annotated bibliography presents thorough annotations of 12 selected texts published between 1979 and 1992 encouragement and support for the whole language philosophy.…

Emergent and beginning readers demonstrate many predictable behaviors in the kindergarten classroom, yet every child is making sense out of print in his or her own way. The job of the kindergarten teacher is to help each child to continue developing as a reader and writer. Reading and writing materials are accessible and usable throughout a…

As an extension of a two-year longitudinal study involving various aspects of children's writing, a study examined the function of children's oral language during creative writing sessions in typical classroom settings. Using ethnographic style techniques, researchers conducted 46 writing episode observations of seven fifth graders in the spring…

Although teachers are often told to use literature as models for students' writing, they are rarely provided with specific suggestions on how, when, and why to use literature, or trade books, in their curriculum. Yet there are many situations in which the use of literature can be helpful to the novice writer. With pre-kindergarten or kindergarten…

A study evaluated the effectiveness of the Success in Beginning Reading and Writing (SBRW) program which is based on the philosophy that children should be taught to read and write using materials they will rely on later in life. Subjects, four teachers and 48 students in the SBRW program and five teachers and 50 students in a Holt Basic Reading…

This book presents current, research-based best practices for supporting young children's development as readers and writers. From leading figures in early literacy, the book's essays demonstrate that scientifically grounded instruction need not be dull, drill-oriented, or "one-size-fits-all"--rather, it describes language-rich approaches to…

Most educators will agree that a kindergarten program must provide not only a print-rich environment, but also carefully organized learning experiences. This book maps out how to develop and maintain an exemplary literacy program in a kindergarten classroom. The first section of the book explores the necessary elements of an outstanding…

This book is intended to help preservice and inservice teachers, parents, and other caregivers of young children to be aware of and supportive of children's literacy knowledge as it grows and changes in the years from birth through early elementary school. It provides a guide to the long continuum of literacy growth, from the very beginning years,…

This booklet offers practical, up-to-date information on early childhood literacy for those who interact with young children. Topics addressed by the booklet include: (1) supportive learning environments; (2) learning to talk; (3) optimizing learning; (4) supporting the literacy development of young children; and (5) fundamental principles for…

Examines the problems of using standardized tests to measure the development of early literacy. Notes that assessment is used to design instruction, and should reflect the skills and knowledge that are developing in young children. Provides examples of informal assessment contexts, such as interactive dialogues, observation, and performance…

Reports a case study which reveals that children use the knowledge they hold about what writing is for, how writing is created, and the conventions of writing in their first language to help them write successfully in the second language. (MM)

Reconsiders how child writers gain control of story forms, the functions of children's story worlds in their real worlds, and the connections between form and function in literacy development. Focuses on one students' writing development to show the gradual evolution of literary perspective. (MG)

A longitudinal case study examined the writing development of two children who learned to write in "process writing" classrooms in Australia. Results of participant observation in K-3 classrooms suggest that choices made in language are not free but are constrained by social and cultural contexts, including the ideology of gender in the…

Studied emergent literacy in Hebrew by analyzing nursery and kindergarten children's attempts to write and read pairs of nouns. Found that, with age, children's sensitivity to phonology increased and sensitivity to semantics decreased and that these sensitivities played a greater role in literacy acquisition than did sensitivity to morphology. (MM)

Used multiple case studies to examine the writing of eight second graders in a dual curriculum school with Hebrew as an additional language. Findings revealed some letter and directional reversals, mostly conventional word boundaries, and invented spellings in both languages. Evidence suggests that learning to write in an additional language is an…