This article highlights considerations for teachers when selecting and using e‐books and e‐book applications (apps) with beginning readers during guided and independent reading. A framework for examining e‐books and e‐book apps is suggested, and several apps and related digital features are described. The article also includes an overview of children's emergent and early reading behaviors, the types of texts that support these behaviors, and examples of how digital texts could influence beginning reading instruction. Also discussed are the ways in which e‐books and e‐book apps can enhance the home–school connection and support English learners.

Using running records as a lens to facilitate multilingual students’ language and literacy development can help teachers recognize and build on students’ linguistic capital. The authors analyzed 123 running records of Spanish‐speaking first graders to begin to identify the types of language‐related errors they made when reading. Using an assets orientation, the authors ask teachers to shift from the concept of reading errors to language‐related approximations when a student's reading and rereading differ from the text because of linguistic differences. The authors consistently found five types of language‐related approximations in the data: teachers’ use of tolds, verbs, contractions, prepositions, and use of the plural ‐s for nouns. The possible impact on comprehension for each of these language‐related approximations is explored and practical instructional recommendations provided, as well as a tool to help teachers analyze language‐related approximations.

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This chapter introduces an assets-oriented oral language formative assessment tool for use with multilingual students. The assessment tool, called the Oral Language Record (OLR), was developed to help teachers listen to, record, and analyze authentic student talk in a variety of settings. It provides valuable information about the vocabulary and language structures that students use, helps determine current instructional needs, provides a frame for capturing student talk, and documents growth over time. The OLR contains a continuum based on observable behaviors and an analysis tool that helps teachers determine next steps in instruction based on their observations. Used in conjunction with a student's writing sample and observation of the child's reading, the OLR provides a holistic view of a multilingual student's language and literacy acquisition, enabling the teacher to focus on the child's linguistic strengths to plan future instruction.

This chapter introduces an assets-oriented oral language formative assessment tool for use with multilingual students. The assessment tool, called the Oral Language Record (OLR), was developed to help teachers listen to, record, and analyze authentic student talk in a variety of settings. It provides valuable information about the vocabulary and language structures that students use, helps determine current instructional needs, provides a frame for capturing student talk, and documents growth over time. The OLR contains a continuum based on observable behaviors and an analysis tool that helps teachers determine next steps in instruction based on their observations. Used in conjunction with a student's writing sample and observation of the child's reading, the OLR provides a holistic view of a multilingual student's language and literacy acquisition, enabling the teacher to focus on the child's linguistic strengths to plan future instruction.