ABSTRACT
Chapter 8, The At-Home Model for New Readers: The Language Experience Approach , begins Part 2, The Emerging Reader. We build on the first seven chapters about the At-Home Model for Writing to apply the At-Home Model to Reading. A brief background in Emergent Literacy is provided to set the stage for the focus on early reading. We introduce The Language Experience Approach (LEA), a well-recognized approach for early reading instruction that fits well with the At-Home Model, followed by a discussion of how LEA benefits reading development. Instructions for how to collect the child's dictated experience stories are given in full detail, with steps in order, example stories, and tips on what to watch for. Once the stories are collected, they can be activated in the form of follow-up activities that explore and expand reading development skills in areas such as sight words, decoding skills, word categories, and comprehension. All follow-up activities take advantage of the high meaning content that the dictated stories have for the child, thus enhancing their effectiveness and learning potential.
