Comprehensive Literacy For All

This book addresses crucial and controversial questions facing today's reading scholars, educators, and professionals. Demonstrating the diverse, and often divisive, opinions that characterize the field, leading contributors including--Isabel L. Beck, Vivian L. Gadsden, Taffy E. Raphael, Jane Hansen, Peter Afflerbach, P. David Pearson, Michael Pressley, Richard Anderson, and Marilyn Jager Adams--offer their insights and expertise on such issues as the phonics/whole language debate, the state of reading comprehension instruction, the validity of and need for standards and assessment, effective methods of teacher preparation, and family literacy.

Comprehensive yet succinct and readable, Literacy in Grades 4-8, Third Edition offers a wealth of practical ideas to help preservice and practicing teachers create a balanced and comprehensive literacy program while exploring the core topics and issues of literacy in grades 4 through 8. It addresses teaching to standards; differentiating instruction for readers and writers; motivating students; using assessment to inform instruction; integrating technology into the classroom; working with English learners and struggling readers; and connecting with caregivers. Selected classroom strategies, procedures, and activities represent the most effective practices according to research and the many outstanding classroom teachers who were observed and interviewed for the book. The Third Edition includes added material connecting the Common Core State Standards to the instruction and assessment of literacy skills; a combined word study and vocabulary chapter to help readers integrate these important topics in their teaching; more on technology, including comprehension of multimodal texts, enhancing writing instruction with technology tools, and teaching activities with an added technology component; added discussion of teacher techniques during text discussions, strategic moves that help students become more strategic readers. Key features: In the Classroom vignettes; more than 50 activities,some with a technology component; questions for journal writing and for projects and field-based activities; troubleshooting sections offering alternative suggestions and activities for those middle-grade students who may find a particular literacy focus challenging.

This book provides a systematic exploration of family literacy, including its historic origins, theoretical expansion, practical applications within the field, and focused topics within family literacy. Grounded in sociocultural approaches to learning and literacy, the book covers research on how families use literacy in their daily lives as well as different models of family literacy programs and interventions that provide opportunities for parent-child literacy interactions and that support the needs of children and parents as adult learners. Chapters discuss key topics, including the roles of race, ethnicity, culture, and social class in family literacy; digital family literacies; family-school relationships and parental engagement in schools; fathers’ involvement in family literacy; accountability and employment; and more. Throughout the book, Lynch and Prins share evidence-based literacy practices and highlight examples of successful family literacy programs. Acknowledging lingering concerns, challenges, and critiques of family literacy, the book also offers recommendations for research, policy, and practice. Accessible and thorough, this book comprehensively addresses family literacies and is relevant for researchers, scholars, graduate students, and instructors and practitioners in language and literacy programs.

Basic Early Literacy Skills provides all the resources necessary for educating readers from grades K-3.

Mrs. Bear plans a surprise Valentine's Day celebration for Mr. Bear despite their usual hibernating habits at that time of year.

Teaching literacy to middle school and high school students with significant disabilities can prove challenging when available reading materials don't match students' reading levels and interests. This accessible, step-by-step guide shows teachers how to match students with appropriate texts and develop inventive themed units that encourage literacy learning. The authors demonstrate how teachers can build whole units around a selected text by creating hands-on activities that engage multiple senses. This valuable resource includes sample activities and lesson plans, ideas for adapting general education materials, and essential information on how to Build vocabulary and use retelling and guided reading Teach functional skills on a daily basis Incorporate media and assistive technology Coordinate with general education teachers and involve parents Assess students' learning and meet Individualized Education Plan goals Perfect for special education and inclusive classrooms, this resource features everything teachers need to motivate students with disabilities and help them develop literacy skills! Book jacket.

"Each chapter in this collection presents an essential part of a high-quality literacy framework. Informed by decades of research and practice, editor Patricia L. Sharer and authors from The Ohio State Literacy Collaborative illuminate in precise detail every facet of classroom literacy instruction. They demonstrate how to build on students' strengths, draw on the very best children's literature throughout the literacy block, and use embedded formative assessment to inform precise, responsive instruction." -- Publisher description.

"In this book, structured literacy is conceptualized as an umbrella term encompassing a variety of intervention methods, instructional approaches, and commercial programs. In addition to focusing on SL approaches to intervention, this book is organized around common poor reader profiles that have been identified in research. The chapters in this volume are written by experts who are well known as researchers but who are also highly skilled at writing for practitioners. Chapters were written with a strong foundation of research that is summarized, but with a concentration on translating research into practice, including case studies, sample intervention activities, and lesson plans. Each chapter includes application activities at the end to check for and extend readers' understanding"--

Meet the learning needs and preferences of all students using Children with Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four-Blocks(R) Way for students in grades 1–3. This 144-page book provides a glimpse into an inclusion special-education classroom that uses the Four-Blocks(R) Literacy Model. This wonderful collection of ideas, strategies, and resources includes information on Self-Selected Reading, Guided Reading, Writing, and Working with Words. It also includes strategies for reading and writing success in special-education classrooms, variations for students with disabilities, teacher's checklists, IEP goal suggestions, examples of assistive technology, and answers to commonly asked questions. The book supports the Four-Blocks(R) Literacy Model and provides a list of children's literature that can be used in lessons.

All the tips and tools you need to realize the goal of balanced literacy learning. Students learn to read and write best when their teachers balance literacy instruction. Best-selling authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nancy Akhavan help you strike the right balance of skills and knowledge, reading and writing, small and whole group instruction, and direct and dialogic instruction, so that all students can learn to their maximum potential. Using this essential guide, tap your intuition, collaborate with your peers, and put the research-based strategies embedded within to work in your classroom for a strong and successful balanced literacy program.