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A Celebration of Literature and Response: Children, Books, and Teachers in K-8 Classrooms (2nd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I chose this book for a children's literature class that I lead based mostly on cost. The other recommended texts in this area are very expensive and I wanted my students to be able to purchase quality trade books as well. I need to supplement the reading a great deal because of the cursory nature of the chapters regarding various genres. For the money, it's a fine text but be aware that it leaves out a great deal that that other books - such as Norton's Through the Eyes of a Child from the same publisher - cover in greater depth.

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Reinforced by teachers' experiences in actual classrooms, this book provides a wealth of ideas for projects, readings, and response-based activities that will engage all learners in the joy of reading and responding to literature. It blends an appreciation of children's books across all genres with an emphasis on meaningful instructional strategies for literacy programs. Coverage of multicultural/international literature helps illustrate the universality of themes in children's literature—providing a basis for establishing a library of literature that expresses the totality of children's experiences and speaks to children from all cultures and backgrounds. Coverage is based on Louise Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reader response, and organized around five main "celebrations"that the author uses as a framework for uniting the findings of reader-response theory with quality children's literature and exemplary reflective, literature-based practice. Includes expanded coverage on multicultural/international literature—including numerous examples of children's literature written and published in other countries. Includes extensive coverage of reader responses to literature—oral and written responses, as well as those made through the visual arts. For teachers of Children's Literature. Introduces future teaches to the full range of children's responses to literature—encourages the use of a variety of strategies to elicit authentic, heartfelt, meaningful responses from pupils. An appendix on children's literature awards. Highlights exemplary children's literature across all genres—focuses students' attention on established standards and offers guidance for choosing literature that meets such standards. CONTENTS

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Reading Comprehension Success (Skill Builders Series (New York, N.Y.).) Review

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(More customer reviews)The author provides the complete toolset essential for reading comprehension. For example, the author shows exactly what a "main idea" is, provides definitions and examples, provides hands-on practice and tests reader understanding, and then ties several related tool-skills together in a later review chapter with further integrated practice materials. This sensible approach was missing or lacking in every other book I read; the first grade reading comprehension books I browsed at the bookstore were more helpful than those books. I have been out of formal education for many years and I read several top-brand books trying to get solid help. None of those books were nearly as helpful as this one book. In fact, (Elizabeth L. Tesla) the author's series of books is a must for every personal reference book shelf- even appropriate for younger children. This one book answers all of the questions and solves all of the problems related to reading, but the author also points out correctly that a reader must practice in everyday situations by reading a variety of materials and applying the tools in this book. Reading is a lifelong enjoyment and acquired skill. Buy this book and then practice, practice, practice.

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Anyone preparing to take a job-related exam that tests for basic language, math, and/or critical thinking skills. High school or college students and adults who need basic skills improvement to perform better in the classroom or on the job.

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Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, Third Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I begged my administrator to purchase this for me after attending the state reading convention. What a great resource! This provides practical, yet expertly researched ideas and solutions to common literacy problems. A great feature is included for pre-service and new teachers at the end of each chapter - questions and activities to evaluate current teaching.
My copy is all highlighted, dog eared, and sticky noted. It has been passed around the building for sharing ideas. This book should be a gift to each new teacher by their principal!

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Now in a thoroughly revised and expanded third edition, this evidence-based book distills the latest knowledge about literacy teaching and learning into clear strategies for helping all children succeed. Within a comprehensive conceptual framework, the field's leading authorities provide eminently practical recommendations to guide instructional decision making. The third edition has been fully updated with current research findings, policy issues, and program innovations. It offers significantly revised coverage of assessment, motivation, approaches to integrating different kinds of texts and multimedia resources, and adolescent literacy. New chapters address working with English-language learners and supporting teachers' professional development. Also featured is a new concluding commentary by Michael Pressley.

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Direct Instruction Reading (4th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Direct Instruction Reading, gives away ALL the secrets of the designers of Reading Mastery, one of the most effective reading programs available today. The text gives ALL the details necessary to teach reading successfully. The text explains how to teach explicit, systematic phonics for beginning readers and why it is necessary. The text leads the reader through a comprehensive description of methods for every step in learning to read. From teaching how to sound out words, through learning irregular words, to fluent decoding and passage reading, the authors provide techniques of instruction all the way up to teaching children how to get the most from content-area textbooks. The text includes exactly the kind of information teachers need to be able to teach phonics, such as the most common sounds of letters, blends and sound combinations as well as how to teach students to blend, how to deal with irregular words, how to teach the magic "e" rule and countless other specifics. A comprehensive set of field-tested teaching scripts provide efficient and effective wording for teaching more than 36 common reading objectives - ranging the gamut from phonemic awareness skills to advanced story reading comprehension. Informed by years of teaching and supervising reading instruction this text has concrete suggestions for dealing with just about every problem a teacher might have in reading instruction- examples include how-to-tips for students who are not: blending sounds, paying attention, reading correctly, understanding vocabulary, reading with fluency, comprehending their reading, making adequate inferences, and so on. This book has been used as the text for the reading class in three universities in which I have taught. I have taught from it, and previous editions, for several years. I believe it is one of the most useful textbooks I have ever read. It truly teaches everything one needs to know about teaching reading. I give it my highest recommendation. Don Crawford, Ph.D. Western Washington University Department of Special Education I am responsible for the content of this message, which does not in any way reflect the position or policy of Western Washington University.

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Based on the latest guidelines from the National Reading Panel, this practical guide to teaching reading uses the direct instruction reading approach, a proven program that's especially powerful with the most vulnerable of learners—those at risk because of poverty, disability, and/or a limited command of English. The emphasis is on inclusion, which uses language and demonstrations understood by all children. Nationally known and respected authors don't simply list method after method; rather, they provide a specific repertoire of carefully sequenced procedures that teach decoding, comprehension, content reading, and study skills. Strategies are recommended for each skill to be mastered; discussions of optimal timing and error correction, along with numerous examples, are included. In addition, the authors carefully and thoughtfully examine the relationships among different reading skills. For educators who need a thoughtful, sensitive, and informative book that will enhance their ability to teach reading, to any student in any context.

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Response to Intervention: Principles and Strategies for Effective Practice (The Guilford Practical Intervention in Schools Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)Where I work, we are close to the point in which we will be implementing the Response to Intervention model for determining learning disabled and emotionally disturbed student eligibility. This necessitated my pouring over this book a few times in the last few weeks. I have to recommend it strongly as it would be difficult to imagine a more thorough work concerning this very new subject. Its historical discussion of special education and learning disabilities was excellent as was the authors' review of recent laws and legislation. The authors' description of the ineptitude of the discrepancy model is compelling even for those of us who never endured zoo staffings which were often its inevitable result. For those of us in the field, there are endless forms and figures on these pages which can be used as inspiration behind the forms accompanying our district's transition; although, RTI adoption clearly isn't just a matter of forms. The most exciting aspect is that it will give us an opportunity to develop a new aspect to one's game. Now, we'll utilize scientifically based interventions and be able to initiate them while recording the results. The authors even offer a template for a novel psychological report based upon Response to Intervention. Their creativity and thoroughness was a pleasant surprise.
However, I couldn't give the text five stars as the authors offer only unmitigated support for their subject. This is not good scholarship, nor is it good science. They make no attempt to explain the limitations which may be inherent to the enterprise. They also do not mention what many a practitioner (I hope) has realized since they first heard of it; which is that, contrary to expectations, it will balloon the size of special education because it will now be impossible to limit the number of children who will be eligible for learning disabled services. The slow learners who were once, and wrongfully, turned away will now be identified alongside the deficit students accommodated in the past. Without any mechanism with which to say no, school psychologists--that is those of us did what we were supposed to do for decades--will have to watch as the floodgates open and numbers swell to the point where special education becomes more normal than special. Perhaps I'm wrong, but my allowing for error is something with which the authors should partake.

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Meeting a key need, this is the first comprehensive guide to implementing a schoolwide response to intervention (RTI) program. The book is geared to helping practitioners understand and respond to No Child Left Behind and to the new special education eligibility guidelines outlined in IDEIA 2004. Presented are the theoretical and empirical foundations of the approach and a clear, 10-step model for conducting RTI procedures with students experiencing learning difficulties. Special features include reproducible planning and implementation worksheets and more than two dozen overhead transparency masters for use in RTI training sessions, with lay-flat binding to facilitate photocopying. For optimal utility, RTI training materials are also available online as PowerPoint slides and PDFs (www.guilford.com/rti).

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Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a highly useful, practical, up-to-date compilation of the best research based reading strategies. It draws from many sources, and presents lessons on one page in a clear format. You will be able to use lessons right away. The black line masters are very clear and visually uncluttered. Our professional bookclub read it and people from several grade levels found it to be a wonderful resource. I have tried Alphaboxes, Read and Retell, and Reciprocal Teaching with success at grades 3 and 4. This is a book that you won't want to keep on a shelf. It will be right on your desk so that you can use it as you make plans.

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This highly practical collection of more than 130 strategies and 90 reproducibles is the perfect resource for any teacher attempting to evoke high-quality responses to literature.

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7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It Review

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(More customer reviews)I devoured this book!! As a parent and a teacher, I know that this book is valuable for both groups. If children have the benefit of knowing how to think while they read, there can be no stopping them. All of us who love to read may not even realize what we are doing during this process but something wonderful happens when we are engaged with a book: To name and model the "7 Keys" for children is so important for their futures as good readers.
If kids don't "see" what they are reading; (visualize) how can they possibly find meaning? Don't assume that these keys happen naturally all of the time. It is so crucial that we as parents and educators guide our kids through this wonderful discovery process in order to help them "get it" and love it!!
I strongly recommend this book for anyone who cares about literacy and for those helping to develop a generation of life-long readers. If you care about children loving reading: BUY THIS BOOK. If you care about children doing well in school: BUY THIS BOOK. If you care about children doing well in life: BUY THIS BOOK. If you care about children passing standardized tests: BUY THIS BOOK. If you care about children at all, BUY THIS BOOK.

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It's simple: If children don't understand what they read, they will never embrace reading.And that limits what they can learn while in school.This fact frightens parents, worries teachers, and ultimately hurts children.7 Keys to Comprehension is the result of cutting-edge research.It gives parents and teachers—those who aren't already using this valuable program—practical, thoughtful advice about the seven simple thinking strategies that proficient readers use:• Connecting reading to their background knowledge• Creating sensory images• Asking questions• Drawing inferences• Determining what's important• Synthesizing ideas• Solving problemsEasily understood, easily applied, and proven successful, this essential educational tool helps parents and teachers to turn reading into a fun and rewarding adventure.

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Writing Road to Reading 5th Rev Ed: The Spalding Method for Teaching Speech, Spelling, Writing, and Reading (Harperresource Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)When I first heard about this system, I kept hearing and reading that "flashcards are in the book". NOT in this 5th edition.
They are in the EARLIER editions (little 3 1/2" squares that you can either cut out and laminate or make copies and paste onto 3x5 index cards if you don't want to ruin the book). The info on the cards is in the book, but not in the flashcard format--they hope that you will buy a set from them.
Also missing from this 5th edition but present in earlier editions (via one of those floppy 33 1/3 speed records) is a recording of the phonograms--why they didn't include a CD with this new edition and raise the price a tad is beyond me. You have to go to their site to buy a recording.
As to whether the 5th edition is an improvement over the previous editions, I have mixed feelings. Yes, there is more "teaching info", such as the dialogues the teacher should use (which you may not bother with if you homeschool), but in some ways it makes it more difficult to actually get to the lessons per se. The word list is extended. It still uses their "clock method" of teaching handwriting, which makes for that very round, old-fashioned "school" look. Many schools now teach D'Nealian, which supposedly is easier to transition to cursive handwriting later (imho, they should teach Italic calligraphy instead). It still has samples of the notebook pages, but in a different part of the book than where the teaching dialogues are (again, they assume that this book/system is being used in a classroom, and you have the laminated posters, as well as laminated flashcards for everyone). The earlier editions have the full-size sample pages right next to the actual lesson.
I actually felt it necessary, after buying the 5th edition AND after borrowing an earlier edition from my library, to buy one of the earlier editions (4th) used on Amazon in order to get the flashcards and the recording, as well as to more easily understand the lessons, because in the earlier editions the information is more or less presented and you move on, as opposed to being discussed at length as it is in the 5th edition.
Also, I was disappointed that the 5th edition, unlike previous editions, is printed on newsprint (it resembles a smaller phonebook both in heft and feel when you turn the pages) and not on better quality paper--I'm skeptical as to how long it will last over time, and with what is essentially a reference textbook, you want something that will last for more than one child.
Bottom line: the system is great. However, this 5th edition seems to really be written for classroom teaching--I feel that for homeschooling parents and someone learning on his own, that they would be well-advised to get an earlier edition (4th or 3rd) with the floppy record if you have access to a record player. The 5th does have an extended "parts of speech" writing portion, that the earlier editions don't have, but there are more interesting grammar books out there, for example, some of Karen Gordon's books.

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The Spalding Method is a total language arts approach that has been used by teachers and parents for nearly fifty years to teach millions of students to spell, write, and read. Now fully updated to reflect the latest research on how children learn language, this newest edition is easier to use than ever.

The Spalding Method helps train the right and left sides of the brain as children see, hear, read, and write. It is cost-effective and efficient; students use pencils, paper, and their minds. The results are stunning: Children learn to connect speech sounds to print and begin to write and read almost magically. Spalding students perform well in the classroom and on tests -- and most important, they love to read and write.

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Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles Review

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(More customer reviews)As a high school English teacher, one of my biggest challenges is the constant prodding of my students to take an active role in their reading. I've worked with a Literature Circle approach for several years, experimenting with different techniques, tweaking my daily lessons, and adding new strategies as I come across them. Now, with this book, Daniels and Steineke have blown me away. They have filled the book with dozens of practical ideas, from mini-lessons on short readings to using book choice in class. Even if you don't use a full Literature Circle approach, their research-based instructional strategies about harvesting techniques, discussion boosters, and even assessment ideas have re-energized my teaching approach. This is a practical, intelligent book that I see becoming a staple in my professional library. As they detail different strategies and their mini-lessons build on important reading strategies, a central thread is evident: a focus on student reflection of the reading-discussion process. I'm hooked. I recommend it to anyone who teaches English or anyone looking for ways to spice up the simple act of reading an article and talking about it in class. Buy the book. Give it to a fellow teacher. Buy another copy. It is worth it.

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Harvey Daniels' Literature Circles introduced tens of thousands of teachers to the power of student-led book discussions. Nancy Steineke's Reading and Writing Together showed how a teacher can nurture friendship and collaboration among young readers. Now, Daniels and Steineke team up to focus on one crucial element of the Literature Circle model; the short, teacher-directed lessons that begin, guide and follow-up every successful book club meeting.

Mini-lessons are the secret to book clubs that click. Each of these forty-five short, focused, and practical lessons includes Nancy and Harvey's actual classroom language and is formatted to help busy teachers with point-by-point answers to the questions they most frequently ask.
How can I:
steer my students toward deeper comprehension?
get kids interested in each others' ideas?
make sure kids choose just-right books?
help students schedule their reading and meeting time?
deal with kids who don't do the reading?
get kids to pay more attention to literary style and structure?
help special education and ELL students to participate actively in book clubs?
get kids to expand their repertoire of reading strategies?
make sure groups are on-task when I'm not looking over their shoulder?
introduce writing tools (including role sheets) that support student discussion?.
help shy or dominating members get the right amount of "airtime?"
give grades for book clubs without ruining the fun?
use scientific research to justify the classroom time I spend on literature circles?

Each mini-lesson spells out everything from the time and materials needed to word-by-word instructions for students. The authors even warn "what could go wrong," helping teachers to avoid predictable management problems. With abundant student examples, reproducible forms, photographs of kids in action, and recommended reading lists, Mini-lessons for Literature Circles helps you deepen student book discussions, create lifelong readers, and build a respectful classroom community.

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Building Fluency: Lessons and Strategies for Reading Success Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is wonderfully straightforward and immediately applicable in your classroom. It clearly explains the why and the how so you can target this area of reading instruction which is often neglected. It is a quick read and the suggestions are easy to implement without a large investment of time or money. The activities suggested are meaningful, not cutesy, and the assessment suggestions are authentic. Also, the book suggests ways to allow students to track their own progress. This would complement whatever reading program you use; whether basal, 4-blocks, or balanced literacy.

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The author of the bestselling Phonics from A-Z now shares the a wealth of practical ideas for helping students become fluent readers. Includes an easy assessment, many fun activities, oral reading strategies, and word lists that targets words, syllables, and spelling patterns kids should master for fluent reading. For use with Grades 2-6.

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Reading & Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades: Research-Based Practices Review

Reading and Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades: Research-Based Practices

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(More customer reviews)There are a lot of resources out there on reading and writing informational texts, but this is by far the best. The authors combine research, theory, and really practical strategies that can be used in the classroom tomorrow. It's all here. I got my copy in January and it's already dog-earred! If you buy one resource this year, make it this one.

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