Updates a list (originally published in 1963) of "survival" or essential words--words so important for survival and success in everyday life that everyone should know them. Notes that recognition of these key words and phrases may require non-English-speaking individuals, disabled readers, and adult literacy students to use rote memorization for…

Identifies literacy activities that can be used by volunteers to support classroom instruction. Provides a set of guidelines that teachers may give to the volunteers who work with students in need of additional educational opportunities if the students are to meet the challenge of becoming successful, independent readers. (RS)

Reports on a nationwide survey of instructional beliefs and practices of elementary public school teachers. Finds that teachers generally do not assume a polar, either/or approach to phonics and whole language, but instead provide children a balanced eclectic program involving both reading skill instruction and immersion in enriched literacy…

Reports on the long-term development, implementation, and assessment of a framework for beginning reading instruction (the Four Blocks Approach). Describes the framework and how it divides times fairly evenly between the four major historical approaches to reading instruction. Shows that the framework is very successful with children of a wide…

Studies word learning in predictable text by investigating three important factors in facilitating young children's word learning: the reader, the text, and the task. Offers specific suggestions for teaching. (SR)

Presents an interview with E.L. Konigsburg, acclaimed author of books for middle-school children. Discusses her writing, her many award-winning books, and her latest success, the 1997 Newbery Medal winner "The View From Saturday." (SR)

Presents brief annotations of 39 children's books organized around the theme of "impressions": images, illusions (tenuous lines between fantasy and reality), close-ups (in-depth looks at a topic), landscapes (the natural world and settings tied to the land), tintypes (historical settings), and portraits. (SR)

Describes how the Internet can be used to support the active construction of knowledge within classroom, and can be used to create authentic literacy experiences for children. Discusses how literacy and learning are being redefined by the social constructivist perspective and constructivism. Notes specific Web sites. (SR)

Argues that the Internet is a valuable information source for teachers. Demonstrates this by presenting an online Internet conversation between three teachers using a teacher "chatroom" to explore an educational issue (how to help students learn to read and appreciate informational text) with other like-minded educators. (SR)

Discusses four books that help teachers learn about technology and use it in their classrooms: "A Teacher's Guide to the Information Highway" (W. Wresch); "Teaching with the Internet: Lessons from the Classroom" (Donald Leu and Deborah Leu); Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching" (M. Roblyer, Jack Edwards, and Mary Ann Havriluk);…

Examines each Newbery-award-winning book from 1922 to 1997, reporting readability grade level and readability grade range. Finds that the Newbery award books are for children ages 9 to 16, and recommends that a separate category be established to recognize books of quality for emergent readers. Suggests ways Newbery books can be read in elementary…

Presents an open letter to President Clinton regarding his statements about reading standards and testing made in his 1997 State of the Union Address. Points out serious problems in having a national reading standard and trying to get every fourth grader to meet that standard. Discusses problems with curing the so-called reading problem by use of…

Articulates 13 key principles for literacy assessment, which call for a willingness to recognize complexity and diversity and an approach to assessment that begins from inside rather than outside the classroom. Argues that assessment should be assessed in terms of its relationship with teaching and learning, including the opportunities learners…

Discusses the social processes that undergird the media's influence on children's cultural lives. Discusses stories as cultural tools and how people claim stories as their own. Illustrates how one teacher of seven- to nine-year-olds exploited these processes for children's intellectual, social, and literacy growth. (SR)

Presents three categories or models of spelling instruction in grades three to six--a traditional model, a transitional model, and a student-oriented model. Outlines theoretical and research foundations, specific spelling instructional strategies, and implications for instruction associated with each model. (SR)