Children spend more time in school than in any social institution outside the home. And schools probably exert more influence on children’s development and life chances than any environment beyond the home and neighbourhood. The purpose of this book is to document some important ways schools influence children’s development and to describe various models and methods for studying schooling effects. Key features include: Comprehensive Coverage – this is the first book to provide a comprehensive review of what is known about schools as a context for human development. Topical coverage ranges from theoretical foundations to investigative methodologies and from classroom-level influences such as teacher-student relations to broader influences such as school organization and educational policies. Cross-Disciplinary – this volume brings together the divergent perspectives, methods and findings of scholars from a variety of disciplines, among them educational psychology, developmental psychology, school psychology, social psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and educational policy. Chapter Structure – to ensure continuity, chapter authors describe 1) how schooling influences are conceptualized 2) identify their theoretical and methodological approaches 3) discuss the strengths and weaknesses of existing research and 4) highlight implications for future research, practice, and policy. Methodologies – chapters included in the text feature various methodologies including longitudinal studies, hierarchical linear models, experimental and quasi-experimental designs, and mixed methods.

"Looking for concrete ways to help your students begin to recognize patterns in language, and better understand how printed words and letters fit together? The Reading Edge offers all the tools you need to help children become knowledgable, enthusiastic readers, including: * blending, word family, rhyming, and onset and rime strategies * word-attack skills that help children understand how the printed word works * assessment tips that help identify student strengths, weaknesses, and knowledge gaps * suggestions for adapting for ESL and special needs programs. Poignant classroom vignettes throughout the book put literacy, phonics, and learning into context. Ready-to-use tools include assessment and tracking sheets, playful activities, and mini-worksheets."--Publisher's website (www.pembrokepublishers.com).

Representing the state of the art in multimedia applications and their promise for enhancing early literacy development, this volume broadens the field of reading research by looking beyond print-only experiences to young readers’ encounters with multimedia stories on the Internet and DVD. Multimedia storybooks include, in addition to static pictures and written text, features such as oral text, animations, sounds, zooms, and scaffolds designed to help convey meaning. These features are changing how young children read text, and also provide technology-based scaffolds for helping struggling readers. Multimedia and Literacy Development reports experimental research and practices with multimedia stories indicating that new dimensions of media contribute to young children’s ability to understand stories and to read texts independently. This is the first synthesis of evidence-based research in this field. Four key themes are highlighted: Understanding the multimedia environment for learning Designing multimedia applications for learning New approaches to storybook reading Multimedia applications in classroom instruction. Written in jargon-free language for an international audience of students in university courses on literacy and information technology, researchers, policymakers, program developers, and media specialists, this volume is essential reading for all professionals interested in early literacy and early interventions.

12-16 yrs.

Reading on the Edge explores the notion of multiple cultural identity and exile in the work of Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and James Baldwin. Focusing on the cultural politics of modernism through the prism of cultural theory, the book reconceives each author's work while at the same time redrawing modernism's traditionally Eurocentric disciplinary boundaries. The book therefore has wide implications for our understanding of modernism and the modernist canon.