Learning to Read in Kindergarten: Has Curriculum Development Bypassed the Controversies?

Phi Delta Kappan

Volumn 85, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 126-132

  Joyce, Bruce ^a   Hrycauk, Marilyn ^c   Calhoun, Emily ^b   Gariepy, Bev ^c   Reynolds, Christlne ^c   Malayney, Melanie ^c   Kruger, Carol ^c   Lawton Godziuk, Jennifer ^c   Blades, Elaine ^c   Cairns, Christine ^c   Fama, Andrea ^c   Lane, Gloria ^c  

^a Booksend Laboratories   (United States)

^b Phoenix Alliance   (United States)

^c NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0142086969     PISSN: 00317217     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/003172170308500207     Document Type: Review

References (18)

1. See Marilyn Hrycauk, "A Safety Net for Second-Grade Students," Journal of Staff Development, vol. 23, 2002, pp. 55-58; and Bruce Joyce, Marilyn Hrycauk, and Emily Calhoun, "A Second Chance for Struggling Readers," Educational Leadership, March 2001, pp. 42-47.
2. See Marilyn Hrycauk, "A Safety Net for Second-Grade Students," Journal of Staff Development, vol. 23, 2002, pp. 55-58; and Bruce Joyce, Marilyn Hrycauk, and Emily Calhoun, "A Second Chance for Struggling Readers," Educational Leadership, March 2001, pp. 42-47.
3. Emily Calhoun, Literacy far the Primary Grades (Saint Simons Island, Ga.: Phoenix Alliance, 1998).
4. See Connie Juel, "Learning to Read and Write," Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 80, 1988, pp. 437-47.
5. In a long-term study of students who had experienced formal reading instruction in kindergarten, Ralph Hanson and Donna Farrell followed them through their high school years and found that the effects could be detected even as they graduated. See Ralph Hanson and Donna Farrell, "The Long-Term Effects on High School Seniors of Learning to Read in Kindergarten," Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 30, 1995, pp. 908-33. Delores Durkin's work on the positive effects of learning to read early is well known but has not changed the minds of the large number of experts on early childhood education who are more worried about damage than about benefits. See Delores Durkin, Children Who Read Early (New York: Teachers College Press, 1966).
6. In a long-term study of students who had experienced formal reading instruction in kindergarten, Ralph Hanson and Donna Farrell followed them through their high school years and found that the effects could be detected even as they graduated. See Ralph Hanson and Donna Farrell, "The Long-Term Effects on High School Seniors of Learning to Read in Kindergarten," Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 30, 1995, pp. 908-33. Delores Durkin's work on the positive effects of learning to read early is well known but has not changed the minds of the large number of experts on early childhood education who are more worried about damage than about benefits. See Delores Durkin, Children Who Read Early (New York: Teachers College Press, 1966).
7. See, for example, William Nagy, Patricia Herman, and Richard Anderson, "Learning Words from Context," Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 19, 1985, pp. 304-30.
8. A crisp general veview can be found in Nell Duke and P. David Pearson, "Effective Practices for developing Reading Comprehension," in Alsan Farstrup and Jay Samuels, eds., what Research Has to say About Reading Instruction, 3rd ed. (Newark, del.: International Reading Association, 2002), pp. 205-42.
9. Students need to learn to inquire into word patterns and build word-identification skills around concepts about word structures. A fine summary is provided by Linnea Ehri, "Phases of Acquisition in Learning to Read Words and Instructional Implications," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, 1999.
10. The connection of early writing to beginning reading is growing clearer. See Carol Englart et al., "Making Strategies and Self-Talk Visible," American Educational Research Journal, vol. 28, 1991, pp. 337-72.
11. Several lines of research are gradually discovering a great deal about comprehension strategies and how to develop them. See Ruth Garner, Metacognition and Reading Comprehension (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1987); and Michael Pressley et al., Cognitive Strategy Instruction That Really Improves Student Performance (Cambridge, Mass: Brookline, 1995).
12. Several lines of research are gradually discovering a great deal about comprehension strategies and how to develop them. See Ruth Garner, Metacognition and Reading Comprehension (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1987); and Michael Pressley et al., Cognitive Strategy Instruction That Really Improves Student Performance (Cambridge, Mass: Brookline, 1995).
13. The Picture Word Inductive Model provides a set of ways to track student progress. Some variables (such as vocabulary development) are tracked weekly or more often. Others are tracked a little less frequently. See Emily Calhoun, Teaching Beginning Reading and Writing with the Picture Word Inductive Model (Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1999) ; and Bruce Joyce and Beverly Showers, Student Achievement Through Staff Development (Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2002).
14. The Picture Word Inductive Model provides a set of ways to track student progress. Some variables (such as vocabulary development) are tracked weekly or more often. Others are tracked a little less frequently. See Emily Calhoun, Teaching Beginning Reading and Writing with the Picture Word Inductive Model (Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1999) ; and Bruce Joyce and Beverly Showers, Student Achievement Through Staff Development (Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2002).
15. Russell Stauffer, The Language-Experience Approach to the Teaching of Reading (New York: Harper&Row, 1970).
16. Joyce and Showers, op. cit.
17. Thomas Gunning, Best Books for Beginning Readers (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998).
18. J. Lee Wiederholt and Brian Bryant, Gray Oral Reading Tests (Austin, Tex.: Pro-Ed, 2001).