Going to school creates a developmental transition during which new ways of teaching and learning take place and new forms of expertise emerge. This article discusses properties of effective transitions for children in diverse urban schools. A model of socialization is used to explore one component of effective transitions, the ideas that family members and teachers have about teaching, learning and literacy. Studies of literacy over the transition to school are used to show how the development of shared ideas can contribute to more effective transitions for children from diverse language and cultural communities.
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