This contributed text is intended to serve three primary functions. First, it examines and reflects upon the Language Experience Approach (LEA) as an educational approach, reviewing its history and offering different perspectives. Second, it provides practical classroom applications for early childhood, primary and middle school teachers and learners. Some examples include a scrapbook project, the use of nursery rhymes, the writing and telling of family folklore stories, and methods through which to develop a voice through writing. Finally, the text helps readers understand the purposes of language experience and how far one may take the process. Classroom teachers and reading specialists describe strategies in use in a variety of classroom settings and describe ways to integrate current assessment techniques with LEA. The book is divided into five major sections. In the first section, the authors attempt to conceptualize language experience and examine its historical evolution. In the second and third sections, the authors provide practical classroom applications for early childhood/primary grade and intermediate grade teachers and learners. In the fourth section, the authors explore sensible language experience processes and scenarios that meet the needs of special learners (ESL, bilingual, learning disabled). In the final section, the authors examine the big picture of the over-riding purposes of education, consider the continually swinging pendulum of approaches, and provide insight into language experience as an enduring and evolving approach.

Table of Contents:
Preface. I. HISTORY, PRINCIPLES, AND ISSUES.  1. The Language Experience Approach: A Framework for Learning, Nancy D. Padak and Timothy V. Rasinski.  2. Focus on Language Experience Learning and Teaching, MaryAnne Hall.  3. Language Experience Approach: A British Perspective, Robin Campbell.  4. The History of Language Experience: A U.S. Perspective, Jane L. Davidson.  5. The Language Experience Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association: An Historical Overview, Bonnie C. Wilkerson. II.TEACHING STRATEGIES AND CLASSROOM APPLICATIONS FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD AND PRIMARY GRADES.  6. Using Language Experiences in Beginning Reading: How a Language Experience Program Works. Roach Van Allen.  7. Making Written Language Meaningful, MaryAnne Hall.  8. Approaches to Environmental Print with Young Children, Bobbie Gibson Warash, Mary W. Strong, and Rachel N. Donoho.  9. The Scrapbook Project, Bobbie Gibson Warash and Diana J. Kingsbury. 10. Developing Story Discourse: A Technique for Parents, Lane Roy Gauthier, and David B. Yaden. 11. Guided Imagery as Language Experience, Barbara J. Walker. 12. Play as Story, Kathleen Roskos. 13. Using Nursery Rhymes with Early Experience Stories: A Language/Literature Program, K. Eleanor Christensen and William J. Oehikers. 14. Linking Literacy and Lyrics through Song Picture Books, Kathy Barclay. 15. Beginning Writing: Where Does it Really Begin?, Kathy Barclay. 16. Using LEA To Assess Literacy in the Primary Grades, Elizabeth Gibbons Pryor. 17. Tying Assessment to Instruction: Adam Learns to Read the LEA Way, Olga Nelson, Patricia A. Charles Kalmes, and Elizabeth Hatfield-Walsh. 18. My Experience with Language Experience, Marilyn L. Fletcher. 19. A First Grade Language Experience Teacher Talks about the Principles that Guide Her Practice and Decision Making, Janice V. Kristo and Mary Giard. III.TEACHING STRATEGIES AND CLASSROOM APPLICATIONS FOR INTERMEDIATE GRADES. 20. Language, Experience, and Learning: A Natural Connection for the Middle Grades, Elizabeth G. Sturtevant. 21. The Group Mapping Activity for Instruction in Reading and Thinking, Jane L. Davidson. 22. Awareness and Anticipation: Utilizing LEA and DR-TA in the Content Classroom, Bonnie C. Wilkerson. 23. Sorting: A Word Study Alternative, Jean Wallace Gillet. 24. The Directed Spelling Thinking Activity (DSTA): Providing an Effective Balance in Word Study Instruction, Jerry Zutell. 25. More Than Just a Brownie: Language Experience and Edible Science for the Middle Grades, Ellen Lawrence Pesko. 26. Williamsville: An Integrated Language Experience Approach to Math, Patty Tarrant. 27. Collecting, Writing, and Telling Family Folklore Stories, Annette Nancy Taylor and Olga Nelson. 28. Making History Memorable, Carolyn Johns. 29. LEA: Framework for Assessing Students' Higher Level Thinking Skills, Mary Elizabeth Kline. 30. Is Anybody Really There? Developing Voice in Student Writing, William J. Romeo. 31. Language and Experience in the Middle School: The Power of the Writing Workshop, N. Suzanne Standerford. IV.LEA: AN APPROACH THAT INCLUDES ALL LEARNERS. 32. LEA and Students with Special Needs, Harvetta M. Robertson. 33. Empowering Students with Learning Disabilities through Language Experience, Sandra M. Stokes. 34. ZPD+LEA=Reading for Special Needs Children: A Formula for Success, Rose Anne Casement. 35. Variations on a Theme: Using Thematically Framed Language Experience Activities for English as a Second Language (ESL) Instruction, Kathleen A.J. Mohr. 36. Literacy Development of Second Language Learners with Technology and LEA, Vicki Parsons Duling. 37. Negotiated Language Experience and Content Area Instruction in the Bilingual Classroom, Linda Lewis-White. V.LOOKING FORWARD. 38. The Language Experience Approach: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, Michael R. Sampson and Mary Beth Sampson. Appendix: A Chronology of the Language Experience Special Interest Group, Bonnie C. Wilkerson. Index.