Parents of a group of first graders knew very little about the whole-language approach to reading employed in their children's classroom and were consequently unable to help their children as they learned to read. A program was implemented to provide parents in a target group with an understanding of the whole-language approach to reading as well…

This guide for using computers in the whole language classroom provides teachers with practical ideas for the use of computers to promote group interaction and cooperative learning, including: (1) software webs to assist theme development; (2) pre-computer activities to motivate students; (3) computer activities to develop software competence; (4)…

A study examined the effectiveness of the Writing-to-Read Computer Program in elementary school language arts education. The program is designed to teach children to read through interacting with a computer by learning sound/symbol relationships and by composing stories. First through fourth graders from predominantly black, urban schools and from…

This paper reviews the literature relative to the theory and practice of literature-based reading instruction, and seeks to bring clarity concerning the concept of literature-based reading instruction. The paper points out that from a theoretical point of view advocates of literature-based reading instruction draw upon the whole language…

This study explored the perceptions of whole language instruction held by a group of teachers of young children. Four questions framed the study: (1) How do teachers of young children define a whole language program? (2) What kind of whole language activities have the teachers tried in their classroom, and how did teachers feel about the outcomes…

This study was conducted to describe the process of reflective coaching as a means of assisting a kindergarten teacher in developing her own kindergarten program in which she stated she wished to begin to incorporate new strategies based on emergent literacy research. A kindergarten teacher and a teacher educator/researcher participated in the…

This study was designed to investigate the effects of the use of language experience and whole language activities in an early literacy kindergarten curriculum. The study attempts to show that participation in a language-enriched environment achieves results similar to those of traditional methods and basal reading programs in regard to the…

An assistant principal for elementary instruction implemented a 10-week practicum intervention designed to use teacher in-service sessions to encourage the provision of daily opportunities for journal writing to kindergartners and first graders. In-service sessions offered: (1) an overview of highlights of related research; (2) approaches to the…

This two-year pilot study examined the effectiveness of whole language on the literacy development of selected at-risk children, comparing the performance of nearly 100 first and second graders in whole language and traditional classrooms. Findings showed that children from the whole language classrooms performed as well as their counterparts from…

The purpose of the study was to describe teachers' perceptions and experiences in implementing whole language activities in their kindergarten and elementary classrooms. Ten teachers who were part of a pilot whole language program participated in the study. Throughout the 1989-1990 school term, data were collected through teacher questionnaires…

A study focused on families whose children were successful but not exceptional students in kindergarten. Subjects were eight parents (all mothers) whose children had been enrolled the previous year in a kindergarten program that maintained a whole language curricular orientation. The children (four girls and four boys) were highly successful in…

This booklet is part of a series of seven booklets designed to introduce aspects of effective reading instruction that should be considered when teaching reading to students with disabilities. It focuses on essential skill building and teaching activities related to developing a child's ability to recognize and read whole words. The methods…

In America, a dichotomy of teaching philosophies which acknowledge the individual needs of children have produced approaches that are used in public school classrooms. The methods exemplify the dichotomous poles and combinations of both. These dichotomous teaching approaches are often referred to as the traditional methods or parts-specific…

If communicative competence is defined by and organized around culturally-framed and linguistically-patterned communicative plans and goals and the linguistic resources of interactive practices, then interaction in the classroom is employed to create social engagement in regularly occurring interactive practices where communicative learning can be…

This study compared two beginning reading programs, Integrated Reading-Writing (IR-W) and DISTAR in comparable urban schools with students "at risk" for literacy problems. Although the two programs resulted in comparable gains in word recognition and overall reading achievement by the end of first grade, children in IR-W tended to…