While many research studies have examined the early literacy development and experiences of monolingual children (e.g. Clay 1982, 1991, 2001; Dyson, 1984, 1993, 2003), there are few studies that investigate the early literacy development of young emergent bilingual students (Dworin & Moll, 2006; McCarthey et al., 2004; Moll, Saez, Dworin, 2001). Drawing on sociocultural theory (Rogoff, 1990; Vygotsky, 1978), 1995), critical race theory (Ladson-Billings, 1998; Solorzano & Yosso, 2009; Taylor, 2009; Yosso, Villalpando, Delgado Bernal, & Solórzano, 2001) and ethic of care perspectives (Noddings, 1984), this case study examined emergent bilingual students’ writing development during writing workshop in the context of an “English only” official curriculum. Questions guiding the study were: (1) How do emergent bilingual writers participate in writing events? (2) What social, cultural, and linguistic resources do emergent bilingual writers draw upon when engaged in the composing process? and (3) What impact do these resources have on emergent bilingual writers’ understandings of the writing process? Data sources included teacher, student, and parent interviews; field notes and transcripts of focal students' talk and interactions during the whole class mini-lessons and share sessions, individual writing time, and teacher/student writing conferences, and student writing samples. Constant Comparative approach (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser & Strauss, 1965) was used to analyze the data. Findings from this study indicate that emergent bilingual students draw from rich social, cultural, and linguistic repertoires as they write. Findings also indicate that issues of power and agency play out as student position themselves within the group based on language proficiency. On the basis of this study, teachers can support students as they draw upon their rich resources by supporting talk in multiple languages in the classroom. This study also demonstrates how the politics of language education impact young students as they position themselves in the classroom based on access to linguistic resources. Implications for classroom practice include challenging deficit perspectives that fail to view students’ home language and culture as a resource in learning. Teachers can support students as they draw upon their rich resources by encouraging talk and writing in multiple languages in the classroom. Further questions are reasied about English only policies that deny students opportunities to engage in multilingual practices as they learn to read and write in classroom settings.

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The present study explored the efficacy of a parent implemented emergent literacy intervention to promote reading readiness and to improve parent-child relationships among preschoolers and their caregivers. Subjects were 24 parents and their preschool children ranging in age from three to five years who attend preschool at the Mailman-Segal Institute (MSI) for Early Childhood Studies. An assessment of the students' pre -literacy skills was conducted and teacher and parent rating scales that measured social- emotional and behavioral functioning were collected. Parents were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Parents assigned to the experimental group learned to implement activities from the Parents Activate Literacy Skills (PALS) curriculum in their daily routine to promote pre-literacy skills. Parents assigned to the control group learned to implement parenting techniques to promote improved parent-child interactions in an adapted version of Russell Barkley's Parent Training Program. Adherence to interventions was monitored by parents' self-report, and fidelity of implementation was assessed throughout the research by trained observers. The proposed study seeks to understand better the skills required for early literacy acquisition among preschoolers. The children were assessed pre and post-intervention using selected subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson III Achievement Battery and the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities. Parents were asked to complete behavior rating scales and a measure of parenting stress, while teachers were asked to complete behavior rating scales prior to and post-intervention. One-way (treatment versus control) analyses of covariance were used to test for differences between groups. Results from the analyses revealed that children in the Literacy Intervention group performed significantly better than children in the Behavior Management group on Oral Comprehension, Sound Blending, and Phonemic Awareness subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson. Additionally, parents in the emergent literacy intervention showed a significant decrease on the parent-child dysfunctional interaction scale of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI)-Short Form.

This study uses ethnographic tools to document the multiple literacy practices of two Mayan families living in a rural community in Yucatan, Mexico. It explores how young emergent bilingual children make sense of written language through their everyday practices. Data includes field notes from participants observations, video and audio recordings and literacy samples collected during fieldwork. The literacy events extracted from the data were analyzed in terms of the communicative function written language serves, the use of linguistic resources, and particular ways of socialization within literacy events. The findings of this study challenge public discourses which define marginalized children and their families as deficient. Literacy is part of the everyday life activities of minoritiezed families and these experiences provide their children with vast amounts of literacy knowledge. Through the two case studies presented, we document how different language and literacy practices shape children's different pathways to bilingualism and biliteracy.

Young children develop language and early literacy interactions that are the building blocks for future skilled reading. This study was designed to evaluate the early childhood classroom to determine teachers‟ knowledge of early literacy. Based on the Literacy Environment Checklist (LEC) of the Early Literacy and Language Classroom Observation (ELLCO) tool, the classrooms scored 100% proficiency in the Book Area and Book Selection categories. The results indicate the prekindergarten teachers knew how to design their classrooms to enhance early literacy. The classrooms scored 86% proficiency in the Writing Materials category, 73% proficiency in the Writing around the Room category, and 58% proficiency in the Book Use category. These results indicate that the teachers did not utilize early literacy materials or did not have necessary early literacy materials in the classrooms. Many of the teachers had minimal early literacy training. Without specific early literacy training, teachers did not design their classrooms in ways that would enhance early literacy.

Every year, millions of preschool-age children make the transition into kindergarten. This transition from preschool to kindergarten can be difficult for children who have not mastered the basic school readiness skills involved in a successful transition. Although school readiness is broadly defined and involves several basic skills, the present study focuses on the specific contribution of cognitive self-regulation and early literacy skills. The present study examined the effects of preschool progress in cognitive self-regulation and early literacy skills on kindergarten readiness using descriptives, Pearson correlations, analysis of variance, and multilevel growth modeling. Three research questions are described and utilized. Research question 1 examined the growth in early literacy and cognitive self-regulation skills across the preschool year, research question 2 examined the relationship between early literacy and cognitive self-regulation skills, and research question 3 examined differences in student skills across three sites. Participants included preschool students, ages 4 to 5, from three different school districts. Early literacy and cognitive self-regulation data were collected at the beginning, middle and end of the preschool year. Overall, results yield a better understanding of the relationship between early literacy and cognitive self-regulation skills in preschool students and how community-level factors affect these skills in order to better support early intervention in preschools. More specifically, results of the first research question indicated that students made growth in both early literacy skills and cognitive self-regulation skills across the preschool year, and scores in the beginning of the preschool year were significantly correlated with scores at the end of the preschool year. Results of the second research question indicated a strong relationship between early literacy skills and cognitive self-regulation across the preschool year, and results of the third research question highlighted differences in growth rates across sites. Possible mediating variables are described in the discussion. Limitations of the study and future research directions are discussed.