Gretchen Owocki’s research while affiliated with Saginaw Valley State University and other places

Children's needs differ so vastly that a single program designed to support numerous students can only do so much. More than anything else, students need to use professional expertise to unravel their needs and to plan instruction that is directly responsive. This book makes exemplary RTI possible in every reading classroom. The author gives you clear-cut directions and specific tools and strategies for RTI that are sensible and developmentally sensitive. She breaks the process down to its essentials: (1) Collecting & Assessing Reading Data; and (2) Targeted Follow-Up Instruction. The author's authentic reading assessments give you the truest-possible sense of your readers' abilities and open up opportunities for differentiation. She follows these with suggestions for planning and organizing Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction to meet all readers' needs during the day. Following an introduction, the book is organized into two sections: (1) Assessment Practices and Tools; and (2) Instructional Practices and Tools. Appended are: (1) Recommended Literature for Assessment and Instruction; and (2) Tracking Forms for the Reading Assessments, Levels K-6.

This timely synthesis of the vast body of literature about how young children develop literacy is organized around critical lessons from early literacy research that delineate a transactional perspective on early literacy development. It is imperative that we remember these lessons in the midst of political challenge and governmental confrontation.

This article is a synthesis of early literacy research organized according to critical lessons that delineate our shared knowledge base that we name a ‘transactional perspective on early literacy development.’ The critical lessons are grouped into three sets to present the continuum of methodological stances that interpretive researchers take as they design and carry out early literacy studies. This synthesis is particularly timely now – as children and teachers in classrooms around the world struggle to maintain control over literacy learning and teaching within narrow governmental agendas and mandates. Given current governmental agendas (i.e. No Child Left Behind in the USA, the National Literacy Strategy in the UK, among many), it is critical to remember that we share a robust theory, a transactional view of early literacy development that explains how young children come to be literate members of society.

When young children play in a purposefully designed, literacy-rich environment, teachers can discover and capitalize on teachable moments. This book discusses how children develop literacy and how early childhood teachers use play and other child-centered experiences to facilitate literacy development. Chapter 1, "Play and Developmentally Appropriate Practices," defines developmentally appropriate practices and discusses the role of different types of play in development. Chapter 2, "A Glimpse into Two Early Childhood Classrooms," uses vignettes from the activities in a preschool and a first-grade classroom to illustrate the usefulness of planning for play, how children develop literacy through play, the value of teachable-moment teaching, classroom play centers, retelling stories, and pretend play. Chapter 3, "Children Construct Knowledge about the World," presents Piagetian and Vygotskian ideas about how children construct knowledge and how the theory may be applied in the classroom. Chapter 4, "Children Construct Knowledge about Written Language," explores the discoveries children make as they build schemas for written language, including the functions of written language, language forms, and the significant features of written language. Chapter 5, "Discovering Children's Literacy Knowledge," examines information-seeking and observation strategies to discover children's literacy knowledge and use that information to inform the creation of a meaningful play environment and to evaluate children's uses of written language in play. Chapter 6, "Developing the Literate Play Environment," provides tips for designing literacy-related play centers. Contains 81 references. (KB)

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 289-298). Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Arizona, 1995. Photocopy. s