With the passage of the Reading Excellence Act, states and their schools have increasingly emphasized the implementation of research-based literacy interventions, and both parties are eager to know the effectiveness of their efforts. However, the evaluation of the impact of any reform is complicated by the presence of other types of interventions…

Evidence suggests that preschool children are more likely to use and explore print when their environment actively supports the use of print through real-life contexts. Children who have knowledge about print have been shown to have greater success with literacy development on entering school. This paper describes the Preschool Literacy Project…

Describes the development of a beginning writing assessment and defines the criteria used for evaluation. Provides a checklist of evaluation criteria, divided according to three developmental stages: beginning writing or readiness, transition, and composition. (AEA)

Contrasts social constructionist and social interactionist approaches to the problem of discourse. Examines recent social interactionist studies concerning the effects of readers on writers' development, including investigations of word-segmentation skills, peer conferencing, and instructional discourse. (MG)

Follows the reading and writing development of a young boy from first through third grade. Shares how, through storytelling, he defined a sense of himself that retained a strong connection to his primary-years personality while reaching out confidently toward the world of upper elementary classrooms that he would now be facing. (MG)

Examines the predictive relations among symbolic play, the use of metalinguistic verbs and emergent literacy for preschool children. Describes different regression models for older and younger children and suggests that L.S. Vygotsky's and David Olson's theories of literacy are developmentally complementary. (KEH)

Discusses beginning writing activities that teachers can use with young children. Notes that preschoolers use writing systems that include drawings, scribblings, letterlike forms, words, and invented spelling. Suggests that teachers can use functional writing projects, such as greeting cards, lists, journals, address books, and pen pals, to…

An observational project on children's early literacy examined conditions necessary for growth in literacy; ways children evidence their need for personal control through literacy; the social functions of literacy for young children; and how children manipulate and play with language. (TJQ)

Describes and analyzes a young deaf girl's written products from the home setting from age three to seven. Examines her working hypothesis towards the forms of print and compares to those of young hearing children, revealing the diversity of paths all children take in becoming writers and readers. (SR)

Defines interactive writing and how it works. Recommends starting with the message sheet, then going on to written conversation and writing to a make-believe character. Identifies six benefits of interactive writing and asserts that interactive writing supports a basic human need of expressing one's thoughts and communicating them to others. (DLH)

This article discusses home/family factors related to the development of emergent literacy skills in preschool-age children and presents the Home Literacy Inventory for assessing children's non-print activities, reading activities, writing activities, and current reading and writing abilities. How the information can be used to develop…

Summarizing current research and weaving it into practical instructional strategies that teachers can immediately use with young English language learners (ELLs), this book addresses a major priority for today's primary-grade classrooms. All aspects of effective instruction for ELLs are explored: oral language development and instruction,…

Background: Learning conceptions may be studied as specific implicit theories based on theory of mind. Previous studies suggest that a developmental shift from a direct implicit theory of learning to an interpretative one occurs during childhood. Here we explore the development of children's autobiographies of learning to write by adopting this…

This handbook is one of a series developed by the Texas Education Agency in response to requests to provide schools with additional information concerning the written composition portion of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). The handbook focuses on grades 1 through 3. Following an introduction, the handbook is in two parts. Part 1…

A ethnographic study examined the ways a young child's mind grasps the idea of the written word. The 5-year-old subject, called "Craig" in this article, had an unending thirst for print, read at the second grade level, and had fluent speech and vocabulary. Craig was followed over the previous 8-month period from the time he first gained…