The question of which, and how many, word-recognition strategies should be taught to first-grade children has rarely been explored within the context of real classrooms. In this study, we analyzed word recognition instruction in four first-grade classrooms to begin to identify the instructional practices that best foster learning to read words for particular profiles of children. In each classroom, students were organized into reading groups of varying abilities. Instructional practice varied widely across these classrooms; phonics and phonological awareness activities, for example, were more common in Classrooms 2 and 4 than in the other two. And while children in Classrooms 2, 3, and 4 were on average reading at or above their grade level by the end of the year, the only low group children who were reading at grade level were those in Classrooms 2 and 4. Results suggest: (a) differential instruction may be helpful in first grade. While low-group members in a trade book classroom tend to be relatively poor readers at the end of first grade, their classmates in higher groups make exceptional progress; (b) children who enter first grade with low literacy benefit from early and heavy exposure to phonics; once they can read independently, however, these children then profit from the increased vocabulary work, text discussions, and variety of text types that is characteristic of their higher range peers' reading curriculum; and, (c) a structured phonics curriculum that includes both onsets and rimes and sounding and blending phonemes within rimes appears to be very effective. (Note: This article is reproduced as chapter 13 of the fifth edition of Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading, www.reading.orgpublicationsbbvbooksbk502.) La cuestion sobre que y cuantas estrategias de reconocimiento de palabras deben ensenarse a los ninos de primer grado ha sido poco explorada en el contexto del aula. En este estudio, analizamos la ensenanza del reconocimiento de palabras en cuatro aulas de primer grado, con el fin de comenzar a identificar las estrategias de ensenanza que mejor promueven el aprendizaje de la lectura, tomando en cuenta los perfiles particulares de los ninos. En cada aula, se organizo a los estudiantes en grupos de lectores de diferente nivel de habilidad. Las practicas de ensenanza en las aulas fueron variadas: las actividades fonicas y de conciencia fonologica, por ejemplo, fueron mas comunes en las Aulas 2 y 4 que en las otras dos. En tanto que los ninos de las Aulas 2, 3 y 4 alcanzaron un nivel de lectura promedio o superior al finalizar el ano, el unico grupo de ninos de bajo nivel que se desempeno al nivel de su grado, se encontro en las Aulas 2 y 4. Los resultados sugieren: (a) la ensenanza diferenciada puede ser util en primer grado. Mientras que los ninos del grupo de bajo nivel de un aula en donde se usaron libros de texto tendieron a ser lectores realtivamente pobres al finalizar el ano, sus companeros de los grupos superiores hicieron progresos excepcionales; (b) los ninos que ingresaron a primer grado con bajo nivel de alfabetizacion se beneficiaron de la exposicion temprana e intensa a las actividades fonicas; una vez que lograron leer en forma independiente, estos ninos pudieron aprovechar el trabajo con vocabulario, las discusiones sobre textos y la variedad de tipos textuales que caracteriza los programas de lectura de ninos de mayor nivel y (c) un programa fonico estructurado que incluye, tanto las unidades ataque-rima, como articulacion y sintesis de fonemas dentro de las rimas parece ser muy eficaz. Die Frage, welche und wie viele Wort-Erkennungsstrategien den Kindern der ersten Klasse beigebracht werden sollen, wurde fast kaum im realen Klassenraumumfeld untersucht. In dieser Studie analysierten wir Anweisungen zur Worterkennung in vier Klassenraumen der ersten Klasse, um zu beginnen jene Anweisungshandhabungen zu identifizieren, welche am besten das Erlernen vom Lesen der Worte fur besondere Profile von Kindern fordern konnen. In jedem Klassenraum wurden die Schuler in Lesegruppen nach unterschiedlichen Befahigungen unterteilt. Die Anweisungspraxis variierte weitlaufig quer durch diese Klassenraume; phonische und phonologische Bewustseinsaktivitaten, zum Beispiel, traten weit haufiger in den Klassenraumen 2 und 4 auf, als etwa in den anderen zwei. Und wahrend die Kinder in den Klassenraumen 2, 3, und 4 durchschnittliche oder bessere Leseleistungen als der gesamte Klassenstufendurchschnitt zum Jahresende erreichten, verblieben lediglich einige Gruppen von Kindern in den Klassenraumen 2 und 4 auf dem Durchschnittsstufengrad im Lesen. Die Ergebnisse lassen vermuten: (a) differenzierte Anweisungen konnen in der ersten Klasse hilfreich sein. Wahrend die Teilnehmer der unteren Gruppe im Lesebuchklassenraum sich noch als relativ schwache Leser zum Ende der ersten Klasse erweisen, machen ihre Mitschuler in den hoheren Gruppen bereits ausergewohnliche Fortschritte; (b) Kinder, die in die erste Klasse mit geringen Schreib- und Lesevoraussetzungen eintreten, ziehen einen Vorteil aus der fruhzeitigen und verstarkt phonischen Versorgung, jedoch sobald sie erst einmal unabhangig frei lesen konnen, profitieren diese Kinder dann von der gesteigerten Vokabelarbeit, den Textdiskussionen, und der Vielfalt von Texttypen, die charakteristisch fur den Leselehrplan ihrer hoher eingestuften Mitschuler ist; und, (c) einem strukturierten, phonisch betonten Lehrplan, der beides, Anfange und Reime sowie Ton- und Klangmischungen innerhalb der Reime einschliest, welches sehr effektiv zu sein scheint. On a rarement examine dans un veritable contexte scolaire la question de savoir quelles strategies de reconnaissance des mots et combien devraient etre enseignees aux enfants de premiere annee. Nous avons, dans cette recherche, analyse l'enseignement de la reconnaissance des mots dans quatre classes de premiere annee afin de commencer a identifier les pratiques didactiques les plus favorables a l'apprentissage de la lecture des mots pour des enfants de profils differents. Dans chaque classe, les eleves ont ete repartis en groupes de niveau. Les pratiques didactiques etaient tres variables d'une classe a l'autre; par exemple, les activites de conscience phonetique et phonologique etaient plus developpees dans les classes 2 et 4 que dans les deux autres. Et, tandis que les enfants des classes 2, 3 et 4 atteignaient un niveau de lecture moyen ou superieur a leur niveau scolaire en fin d'annee, les seuls groupes d'enfants faibles lisant a leur niveau d'âge se trouvaient dans les classes 2 et 4. Les resultats suggerent que: a) un enseignement differencie peut se reveler utile en premiere annee. Alors que les membres d'un groupe faible d'une classe utilisant un manuel tendent a etre des lecteurs relativement faibles en fin de premiere annee, leurs compagnons des groupes plus forts font des progres exceptionnels; b) les enfants qui commencent leur premiere annee avec un faible niveau de litteratie tirent benefice d'une exposition a la phonetique precoce et soutenue; une fois capables de lire couramment cependant, ces enfants tirent parti du travail sur le developpement du vocabulaire, les discussions sur un texte, et l'utilisation de types de textes varies qui caracterise le programme de lecture de leurs pairs plus avances; et, c) un programme structure de phonetique incluant a la fois attaques et rimes, oralisation et fusion de phonemes au sein des rimes parait etre tres efficace.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/748094.pdf

Learning To Read Words: Linguistic Units and Instructional Strategies.

In this article, we inquire into ways that heteronormativity might be interrupted. Working from the premise that discussions of curriculum are not only sexualized, but heterosexualized, we argue that studies of sexuality must become intertwined with all questions of curricular relations. The writing is developed around two recent investigations: one that involved gay, lesbian, and transgendered teachers; and one that emerged from work with teachers, parents, and elementary school children. Through interpretations of specific responses to literary texts given by these adults and children, we seek to demonstrate how queer theory has paralleled and might be used to inform curriculum theory. In particular, we argue that curriculum has an obligation to interrupt heteronormative thinking—not only to promote social justice, but to broaden possibilities for perceiving, interpreting, and representing experience. We suggest that this obligation might be accomplished through the development of heterotopic fo...

Interrupting Heteronormativity: Toward a Queer Curriculum Theory

This paper is based on a presentation given at National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 2005 in Anaheim, California. It explicates the developmental stages of the child as posited by Piaget. The author then ties each of the stages to developmentally appropriate mathematics instruction. The implications in terms of not imposing unfamiliar ideas on the child and importance of peer interaction are highlighted.

/pdf/applying-piaget-s-theory-of-cognitive-development-to-2e764aeesb.pdf

Applying Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development to Mathematics Instruction.

When children learn to speak a language, they naturally become well acquainted with its elementary speech sounds, or phonemes. They pronounce these sounds with every word, and they hear them spoken in every utterance. Despite their remarkable expertise in speech, children ordinarily spend little time thinking consciously about the phonemes they use. Their focus is quite properly on getting meaning and on producing understandable messages. And, indeed, phonemic awareness would be irrelevant were it not for the fact that phonemes are the units encoded by the letters of the alphabetic languages used in most of the modern world, the raw material of reading and writing.

Phonemic awareness helps beginning readers break the code

Work on learning from a situative point of view suggests that to understand how children's thinking about a domain such as fractions develops, research needs to take into account the socially organized ways of thinking in which children participate during instruction. The aim of the study reported in this article was to explore children's fraction learning in a 1st-grade classroom in which the teacher elicited and built on children's informal knowledge of fractions. Instruction revolved around children's solutions and discussions of equal-sharing tasks. The study provides an account of children's learning that examines the relation between classroom talk and children's evolving fraction concepts, with a focus on the analysis of several key classroom interactions that resulted in cognitive change. Pretests and posttests indicated that children's understanding of fractions changed in important ways. The results suggest that how children think about fractions is influenced not only by how their own knowledge...

Equal sharing and shared meaning: The development of fraction concepts in a first-grade classroom

Rosie was a busy, fat, comfortable hen, and one day she decided to go for a walk But Rosie didn't know she was being followed by a wicked fox Unwittingly she led him into one disaster after another, and got back home safely

Rosie's Walk

A reprint of this title, first published in 1986. Illustrated throughout in full colour a story involving two children who had six cookies each - until the doorbell rang, and rang again, and they had to share them with more and more people.

The Doorbell Rang

'Six farm eggs, a cake for tea, a pound of pears and don't forget the bacon'A young boy sets out to do the shopping, determined to remember his simple list but as the sights and sounds of town distract him he finds himself in a terrible muddle

Don't Forget the Bacon!

Mr Higgins wanted to know if the old clock he found was telling the right time So he filled his house with more clocks only to find that as he moved from room to room they each told a different time Only the clockmaker could solve the problem

Clocks and More Clocks

Titch is sick of having clothes passed down to him, to be told that he'll soon grow into them - until the day he gets his own new clothes, and the chance to cast off his old ones - to the baby. By the author/illustrator of "Where's the Baby?", "Silly Billy!" and "Tidy Titch".

Pat Hutchins

Papers

Rosie's Walk

The Doorbell Rang

Don't Forget the Bacon!

Clocks and More Clocks

You'll Soon Grow into Them, Titch