Books:
Advocates using phonics the way that readers actually read. The book is full of active ways to engage children in word play.
Cunningham and A llington describe supportive instructional methods that teachers achieve through an explicit modeling of the thinking processes that skilled readers and writers use. Examples of balanced programs are described in depth.
This is a collection of nine essays by Lisa Delpit. Delpit examines the need for teachers to e xplicitly teach the skills involved in Standard English, the language in power. She also stresses the need to understand the culture of the students you teach and shares her accounts working with the Native Alaskans and those in Papua, New Guinea.
Heath studies children learning to use language at home and school in two communities only a few miles apart in the Piedmont Carolinas. "Roadville" is a white working-class community of families who mostly work in the textile mills. "Trackton" is a black working-class community whose older generations grew up farming but current members work in the mills. The townspeople are upper class white and black people. Heath shows the deep cultural differences between the three communities. She portrays how differences in language use are linked to success in education for these groups.
Probems in literacy education are explored and seven intervention programs used to prevent early reading failu re in grades K-1 are described. These include one-on-one tutoring, small group supplemental instrudtion, success for all, reading recovery, bilingual intervent ions, interactive writing, sompensatory and special education.
Hurston, Z. N. (1937). Their eyes were watching god. New York: Harpor & Row.
Ladson-Billings focuses on wha t nine different but very successful teachers have in common that make them successful teachers of African American children. Some of the qualities the teachers share is that they have high expectations for their children and they have a deep understanding of their children's community.
Paley, V.G. (1979). White Teacher. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Paley write«s about her inner struggles with her perceptions and misconceptions of children of various races, but primarily African-American children. She sends the message that we need to acknowledge difference in order to then understand and value difference.
Articles:
Delpit, L. (199?). Teachers, Culture, and Power. Rethinking Schools, 6(3).
The African American student must be strong in both Edited English as well as Black English in order to succeed in a country where only Edited English is valued by the culture of power. African American children need more directed taching in order to learn the tools needed to succeed in today's world.
Fielding, L., Pearson, D., (1994). Reading comprehension: What works. Educational Leadership 62-68.
Comprehension is a skill that can and must be taught. Teachers must give their students more opportunites socially in order to make deeper meanings with text.
Allowing time and choice are things that will help children want to read. Incentives for reading are used for first graders.
Samuels, S. J., (1979). The method of repeated readings. The Reading Teacher (32).
In order to comprehend, in order to become a more independent reader, children must read familiar stories repeatedly. Like an athlete or a musician, they must practice.
Yopp, H., (1992). Developing phonemic awareness in young children. The Reading Teacher, 696-703.