Accompanied by Literacy activities for early childhood classrooms / Lesley Morrow and Elizabeth Asbury.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 396-406) and index.

Foundations of early literacy development: surveying the past to the present -- Observing and assessing the learning needs of all children -- Family literacy partnerships: home and school working together -- Language and literacy development -- How young children learn to read and write -- Motivating reading and writing with children's literature: using children's literature in classrooms -- Developing concepts about books and comprehension of text -- Word-study skills: phonemic awareness and phonics -- Writing and literacy development -- Organizing and managing the school learning environment for literacy development -- Appendices.

"This book emphasizes an integrated language arts approach to teaching young children literacy, focusing on balanced, constructivist and direct instruction." Literacy Development in the Early Years presents a theoretical and research-based rationale for its contents, as well as practical applications based on that theory. It embraces integrated language arts and an interdisciplinary approach to literacy development as it addresses developing writing, reading, and oral language in the home and school curriculum. The use of children's literature is emphasized as the most important instructional materials and the joy of early literacy experiences is stressed to ensure lifelong reading habits. Literacy development is viewed as an active process between children and adults to create meaning and real purpose." For anyone interested in early childhood language arts.