Describes Reading Express, a collaborative program bringing together first-grade teachers and Reading Recovery teachers to support all first-grade children in literacy development. Indicates that the program is having a positive impact on students' literacy development. Concludes that first-grade teachers are more strategic in their reading…

Describes part of an on-going investigation of second language reading development of elementary school children from a bilingual, indigenous, community where high levels of proficiency in both languages are common among all age groups. Applies modifications to the standard rational deletion cloze procedure to adapt assessment to the special…

Describes home literacy experiences of six Chinese English-as-a-second-language kindergartners. Includes the parents' provision of literate home environments as well as children's functional use of Chinese and English and engagement in Chinese and English literacy activities. Indicates the diverse and cultural nature of the home literacy…

Presents a discussion by dedicated teachers (who were taking a university course for reading assessment and diagnosis) about students' problems with vocabulary words that impede successful reading comprehension. Discusses how the interactive process of developing the strategies pushed the teachers' imaginations and created a challenge for the…

Relates how parody is useful with third-grade children. Shows how children composed personal and meaningful stories based on selected literature. Compares parody and other writing strategies. Defines the parody process, including listening to literature stories, examining picture books, peer editing, and learning language. Includes comments from…

Examines sibling position as an influence on reading perceptions. Finds that elementary and secondary preservice teachers from the "first born" group viewed themselves primarily as "high" proficiency readers (83%); those from the "youngest" group also perceived themselves as "high" proficiency readers (63%); and those from the "middle" sibling…

Examines patterns in the responses of eight second- and third-grade students as they constructed meaning from fiction and nonfiction when asked to respond in writing to different instructional tasks. Suggests that both the task and the text influence children's responses. Demonstrates that young children are capable of providing rich written…

Describes a reading motivation project with a class of fourth-grade students. Shows how the project incorporated strategies shown to promote engagement in literacy: opportunities for choice, reflection, and social interaction. Describes the use of metacognitive activities where students set weekly goals and reflected upon how they were growing as…

Presents brief annotations of five trade books published in 1998. Includes a picture book about an immigrant child starting school; a biography for beginning chapter-book readers; a board book for preschool children; a novel for adolescents; and a book of information and space photography about the planet Venus. (SR)

Examines closely the processes, both theoretical and enacted, a teacher undergoes when making changes in methods of reading instruction. Chronicles, using a qualitative-research case study, a teacher who after 19 years of teaching strictly by the basal began changing toward a balanced literature approach. Includes a model of transition…

Examines one teacher's learning and implementing instructional conversations. Finds that students gave longer responses, initiated conversation, and participated in responsive conversation in which they contributed to, challenged, and extended each others' statements. Discusses implications for teachers' professional development. (SC)

Surveys 670 school districts in 41 states requesting information on spelling-instruction practices to ascertain whether spelling texts are still widely used in the United States given the current emphasis on developmental spelling in the primary grades. Finds most states have spelling standards, but only a few coincide with the National Council of…

Examines the types of literacy support parents gave their children at home with 15 students from a diverse class of 23 third graders during an eight-week integrated unit on writing autobiographies. Finds pattern differences between genders with respect to the nature of support given at home. Suggests that particularly African-American males…

Presents an annotated bibliography of five chapter books and five picture books published in 1998 or 1999. Summarizes the content of these works of children's literature. (SC)

Examines the nature of engagement with informational text by exploring four gifted students' responses to children's information books and informational storybooks. Indicates that these children expressed a variety of reasons for reading non-fiction and held interesting perceptions and strong opinions about informational content. Finds that…