A comparison of young children learning to read in different instructionalsettings

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.