It has been recognized since the 1980s that literacy begins to develop a long time before formal schooling begins. In today's literate environment, children start learning to read much as they learn to speak, through playful print interactions with their parents, older siblings, or other adults, beginning in year one. A sharp debate about the best approach to developing early childhood literacy is now brewing between reading instruction experts, who tend to advocate direct instruction of skills, and preschool educators, who know that preschoolers learn best through play. This book provides a model for action that may help to settle the debate. Interactions that involve the printed word occur spontaneously between young children and adults in the context of daily life activities. This is true, to a greater or lesser degree, in essentially all socioeconomic and cultural environments. Recognizing the critical importance of the early years for the development of literacy, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the International Reading Association (IRA) formulated, in 1998, a joint position statement regarding early literacy. That statement included a set of general recommendations for teaching practice. But following the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind legislation of January 2002, and the establishment of the Reading First and Early Reading First programs, early childhood educators are now under heavy pressure to be more specific and to issue standards, or shared expectations, for the literacy development of all children below kindergarten age. Utilizing the actual experiences of six preschool children, The Secret of Natural Readers documents the process of reading development through stories of their early years. The author discusses the implications of natural reading development and its feasibility among preschoolers from different segments of the population. She also spells out, for parents and early childhood teachers, critical information on how preschool children should learn to read.

Teachings of this course: a pleasing voice, a magnetic voice, a natural voice and vocal curiosity shop.

Grapholinguistics, the multifaceted study of writing systems, is growing increasingly popular, yet to date no coherent account covering and connecting its major branches exists. This book now gives an overview of the core theoretical and empirical questions of this field. A treatment of the structure of writing systems—their relation to speech and language, their material features, linguistic functions, and norms, as well as the different types in which they come—is complemented by perspectives centring on the use of writing, incorporating psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic issues such as reading processes or orthographic variation as social action. Examples stem from a variety of diverse systems such as Chinese, English, Japanese, Arabic, Thai, German, and Korean, which allows defining concepts in a broadly applicable way and thereby constructing a comparative grapholinguistic framework that provides readers with important tools for studying any writing system. The book emphasizes that grapholinguistics is a discipline in its own right, inviting discussion and further research in this up-and-coming field as well as an overdue integration of writing into general linguistic discussion.

Library Journal Best Reference 2009 Educators have begun to recognize that identifying and accommodating students who are slower to learn may leave behind those who learn rapidly and think creatively. The nature of intelligence, the sources of innovation, and the ways to nurture special abilities are now topics of great interest to scholars in a wide variety of disciplines and to the general public. Policymakers, ranging from school board members to leaders of nations, must also make practical decisions about how communities and societies will treat their brightest, most promising students. With more than 400 entries, these two volumes review research findings on giftedness, talent, and creativity and their effect on education, training, science and the arts, government policy, and everyday life. The Encyclopedia of Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent provides a balanced, objective assessment of the various perspectives on the nature of intelligence, innovation, and optimal states. This state-of-the-art resource covers all major facets of the field, including achievement motivation, artistic ability, creative personality, emotional intelligence, gender differences, genius, intelligence testing, learning styles, minority underrepresentation, multiple intelligences, musical ability, prodigies, scientists, self actualization, thinking skills, and more. Key Themes Assessment and Identification Creativity Studies Cultural Issues Education Eminent People Exceptionalities Intelligence Neuroscience and Genetics Populations Programs and Interventions Psychological Issues Talent Domains Theories and Models Key Features Provides a balanced and critical discussion of the controversies that have animated research and theory making Clarifies which grouping and instructional strategies promote the best outcomes in achievement and social/emotional development of gifted children Helps educators make informed decisions about the identification strategies and the curriculum models that best meet their students′ needs Contains thousands of pertinent facts from the fields of education, psychology, sociology, and the arts Evaluates policies that have hindered gifted children and makes a persuasive case for appropriately challenging and differentiated education Examines how giftedness, creativity, and talent were defined in the past and how current meanings have emerged.

The late Toni Morrison was the first African-American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. A powerful writer, she wove stories depicting the largely overlooked Black experience in America and exploring the intersection of gender and race through the lives of Black women. Morrison's writing continues to move people and push readers to reassess their beliefs about what it means to be Black in America. Synthesizing some 250 scholarly works about Morrison's writing, this book examines eight novels as well as the short story "Recitatif." They are analyzed for techniques used to deepen meaning and emotional weight, and reveal Morrison's mastery over prose.

Real Materialism draws together papers written over twenty years by Galen Strawson in philosophy of mind and metaphysics. Strawson focuses on five main areas of enquiry: [1] the nature of the physical, consciousness, the 'mind-body problem', and the prospects for panpsychism; [2] the self, the subject of experience, self-consciousness, and the 'narrative' self; [3] free will and moral responsibility; [4] the nature of thought and intentionality and their connection with consciousness; [5] the problem of causation with particular reference to the philosophy of David Hume.