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Metalinguistic Awareness is the ability to consciously reflect on and manipulate language, from the level of the phoneme, to words, to whole phrases. Research has shown that engaging in metalinguistic activities can have a positive impact on reading. This article details some of the component skills of metalinguistic awareness (in this case, primarily phonology, morphology, and semantics) and explores how word puzzles can be employed as a means of authentic practice for elementary age students. The authors describe how to analyze games and puzzles for the component language skills practiced, and also how to get started implementing them in the classroom. Strategies are discussed in how to modify and use these games in support of an existing curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a wide range in the educational qualities and overall quality of interactive storybook apps for tablet computers (ebooks). Minimally, ebooks for young children present illustrations on a screen, accompanied by an oral reading of the text. Today's ebooks can also include animation, zooming in and out, musical scores, sound effects, text highlighting, built-in dictionaries, hotspots where the reader clicks to interact with a character or object, foreign language translations, and more. While some ebooks do represent quality children's literature presented in a format that optimizes the affordances of the technology, others more closely resemble cartoons. Therefore, teachers, school librarians, and other school officials need to become educated consumers who carefully consider which ebooks they are buying for young elementary students. This article gives guidelines for evaluating the educational potential of ebooks, and makes specific suggestions for resources on how to find high-quality apps for beginning readers.

New evidence shows that some types of metalinguistic awareness could be important for reading comprehension in much the same way that phonemic awareness is important for learning to decode. In a recent study, students between 7 and 9 years old were taught to manipulate language and understand the multiple meanings of ambiguous words and sentences. This brief training program resulted in improved scores on standardized tests of reading comprehension. One of the most successful elements of this training was a session on understanding and producing riddles. Riddles are the perfect medium for learning how to manipulate language for many reasons, including students' familiarity with them and motivation for reading them. This paper contains the procedures used for writing riddles with primary-grade students as well as observations on the riddling abilities that can be expected from students with widely varying reading abilities. (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)