This book describes effective, engaging ways to build young children's print concepts and alphabetic knowledge, which are crucial for both reading and writing development. Presenting shared reading, shared writing, and targeted instructional activities, each chapter features helpful classroom vignettes, a section debunking myths about preschool literacy, and Ideas for Discussion, Reflection, and Action. Strategies are provided for creating print-rich classroom and home environments and differentiating instruction for diverse students, including English language learners. The book also discusses how to assess preschoolers' reading and writing progress. Reproducible checklists and parent handouts can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.

This book addresses critical issues related to pre-adolescent and adolescent literacy learners with a focus on closing the achievement gap. Despite efforts by educators and policymakers during the past several decades, certain groups of students--primarily African American students, English language learners, and students from low-income homes--continue to underperform on commonly used measures of academic achievement. Too often, teachers and administrators lack both proper preparation and good ideas to confront these issues.

Beginning Reading and Writing provides current, research-based information on the advances and refinements in the areas of emerging literacy and the early stages of formal instruction in reading and writing. Filled with concrete suggestions for classroom practice, this book is useful for the preservice and inservice professional development of teachers, prekindergarten through grade two. It is also an excellent resource for policymakers, administrators, and supervisors as they plan and implement State and local early literacy initiatives.

This book offers an exciting new perspective on language socialization in Latino families. Tackling mainstream views of childhood and the role and nature of language socialization, leading researchers and teacher trainers provide a historical, political, and cultural context for the language attitudes and socialization practices that help determine what and how Latino children speak, read, and write. Representing a radical departure from the ways in which most educators have been taught to think about first language acquisition and second language learning, this timely volume: introduces the theories and methods of language socialization with memorable case studies of children and their families; highlights the diversity of Latino communities, covering children and caretakers of Mexican, Caribbean, and Central American origin living in Chicago, San Antonio, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami, Tucson, and New York City; offers important insights into the ways in which children learn to speak and read by negotiating overlapping and/or conflicting cultural models; and suggests universal practices to facilitate language socialization in multilingual communities, including applications for teachers.

This book addresses critical issues related to pre-adolescent and adolescent literacy learners with a focus on closing the achievement gap. Despite efforts by educators and policymakers during the past several decades, certain groups of students - primarily African American students, English language learners, and students from low-income homes--continue to underperform on commonly used measures of academic achievement. Too often, teachers and administrators lack both proper preparation and good ideas to confront these issues.