Children's acquisition and use of reading strategies and their evolving sta
nce toward reading in 2 instructional settings, skills-based and whole lang
uage, were compared. The authors selected 6 low-income participants who rep
resented a range of reading development from emergent (least proficient) to
conventional (most proficient), The children also had a controlled, common
reading task outside the classroom for comparison, The 1st-grade students'
literacy strategies were coded for self-correction and substitutions that
were meaningful and had letter-sound correspondence. The children in the co
nstructivist-based whole language classroom used more reading strategies an
d exhibited positive stance patterns. Results provide insight into characte
ristics of young children's reading development that are not often research
ed.