READING 604

(Theoretical Foundation of Early Literacy)

*Book Reviews
*Article Reviews

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Ms. Liza L. Chang Dr. Melchor A. Tatlongahari

October 27, 2007

BOOK REVIEW

Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Reading Instruction for All Children. 2nd ed. USA:
Allyn & Bacon, 1992.

Gunning’s book is introduced by the nature of reading and today’s children. As a

jumpstart for all the chapters, an anticipation guide and schema testing were used to
initialize each chapter. The anticipation guide is a study guide type that was also used by
Wood et al in 1992 in guiding readers through text but was termed extended anticipation
guide. This one is quite distinct as compared to the original because it demands for more
active student involvement. The first chapter itself gave a backgrounder on reading
encompassing the three approaches to reading instruction. The Bottom-Uppers, Top-
Downers and Interactionists were part of the introductory chapter. Authorities like
Cambourne, Nunan, Goodman, Smith, Buehl and Cook fully explained the given reading
models. Gunning provided the stages of reading development and these are emergent
literacy, beginning reading, growing independence, reading to learn and abstract reading.
All of these chapters ended with a summary, classroom and field applications. Clay
(1991) considers children as young as newborns emergent readers and writers. Literacy
learning begins at birth or before. Reading readiness was contrasted to emergent literacy
by Gunning. According to Harris and Hodges (1981) reading readiness is the period of
acquiring the specific skills and abilities that allow reading to take place. The cognitive,
oral language, perceptual, affective and home environment are the factors influencing
reading readiness. Gunning proposed ways in fostering emergent literacy. One way is to
promote storybook reading. Storybook reading according to Sulzby (1991) is beneficial
as children learn about reading when adults read aloud and task to them about stories.
Children imitate reading behaviors like turning the pages, retelling the story and using
book like language. The rest of the chapters focus on teaching phonics with emphasis on
spelling. Gentry (1981) gave the stages of spelling; deviant, prephonetic, phonetic,
transitional and correct stage. Knowing the different stages will enable the parents and
teachers assist their children in learning. The following chapters cover sight words and
dictionary usage; building vocabulary; comprehension: theory and strategies;
comprehension: text structures and teaching procedures; reading and writing in the
content areas and study skills; reading literature; approaches to teaching reading; writing
and reading; diversity in the classroom; evaluation; and constructing and managing a
literary program. All of the chapters are rich in multiple and varying concepts that are
practical for classroom applications. A striking topic in the book is technology and
writing. This is the integration of technology in developing writing skills. Mirescu (1997)
highlighted the advantages of CAI in the essay she wrote for language teaching.
Hawisher (1994) believed that computer technology should offer us the opportunity to
rethink of our approaches to literacy instruction and to come closer to understanding how
the complex activities of reading, writing and learning define themselves in the electronic
age. She added that educators must remain active critics in the development and use of
electronic technology. Although the author had few pages for technology, the enormous
impact of it is undoubtedly big.

References:

Bear, Donald R. and Barone, Diane. Developing Literacy: An Integrated Approach to

Assessment and Instruction. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998.

Leu, Donald J. and Kinzer, Charles K. Effective Literacy Instruction. 4th ed. Prentice
Hall, Inc. , 1999.

Mirescu, Simone. (1997). “Computer assisted instruction in language teaching” in

English Teaching Forum: A Journal for the Teachers of English Outside the United
States. 35, 1.