Implementing early literacy : promising success for all kindergarten children

This study demonstrates the viability of an instructional paradigm that identifies adult mediation within the zone of proximal development to be a significant factor in young children's learning.Researchpractitioner-based components were created using results from previous kindergarten studies.Underlying each component was the recognition by the teachers that the following were integral to mediate and support children's learning: (a) structural analysis, (b) scaffolding, (c) mediation, and (d) modeling.Children in the project classes performed significantly better on the majority of reading and writing tasks administered at the end of kindergarten.Of particular importance was the children's performance on measures not specifically related to the treatment, indicating that a level of generalization had been achieved.