Reading For Skill

An inside look at America's most controversial charter schools, and the moral and political questions around public education and school choice. The promise of public education is excellence for all. But that promise has seldom been kept for low-income children of color in America. In How the Other Half Learns, teacher and education journalist Robert Pondiscio focuses on Success Academy, the network of controversial charter schools in New York City founded by Eva Moskowitz, who has created something unprecedented in American education: a way for large numbers of engaged and ambitious low-income families of color to get an education for their children that equals and even exceeds what wealthy families take for granted. Her results are astonishing, her methods unorthodox. Decades of well-intended efforts to improve our schools and close the "achievement gap" have set equity and excellence at war with each other: If you are wealthy, with the means to pay private school tuition or move to an affluent community, you can get your child into an excellent school. But if you are poor and black or brown, you have to settle for "equity" and a lecture--about fairness. About the need to be patient. And about how school choice for you only damages public schools for everyone else. Thousands of parents have chosen Success Academy, and thousands more sit on waiting lists to get in. But Moskowitz herself admits Success Academy "is not for everyone," and this raises uncomfortable questions we'd rather not ask, let alone answer: What if the price of giving a first-rate education to children least likely to receive it means acknowledging that you can't do it for everyone? What if some problems are just too hard for schools alone to solve?

While most children learn to read fairly well, there remain many young Americans whose futures are imperiled because they do not read well enough to meet the demands of our competitive, technology-driven society. This book explores the problem within the context of social, historical, cultural, and biological factors. Recommendations address the identification of groups of children at risk, effective instruction for the preschool and early grades, effective approaches to dialects and bilingualism, the importance of these findings for the professional development of teachers, and gaps that remain in our understanding of how children learn to read. Implications for parents, teachers, schools, communities, the media, and government at all levels are discussed. The book examines the epidemiology of reading problems and introduces the concepts used by experts in the field. In a clear and readable narrative, word identification, comprehension, and other processes in normal reading development are discussed. Against the background of normal progress, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children examines factors that put children at risk of poor reading. It explores in detail how literacy can be fostered from birth through kindergarten and the primary grades, including evaluation of philosophies, systems, and materials commonly used to teach reading.

Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.

Radically change the way students learn from texts, extending beyond comprehension to critical reasoning and problem solving. Is your reading comprehension instruction just a pile of strategies? There is no evidence that teaching one strategy at a time, especially with pieces of text that require that readers use a variety of strategies to successfully negotiate meaning, is effective. And how can we extend comprehension beyond simple meaning? Bestselling authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nicole Law propose a new, comprehensive model of reading instruction that goes beyond teaching skills to fostering engagement and motivation. Using a structured, three-pronged approach—skill, will, and thrill—students learn to experience reading as a purposeful act and embrace struggle as a natural part of the reading process. Instruction occurs in three phases: Skill. Holistically developing skills and strategies necessary for students to comprehend text, such as monitoring, predicting, summarizing, questioning, and inferring. Will. Creating the mindsets, motivations, and habits, including goal setting and choice, necessary for students to engage fully with texts. Thrill. Fostering the thrill of comprehension, so that students share their thinking with others or use their knowledge for something else. Comprehension is the structured framework you need to empower students to comprehend text and take action in the world.

A word-of-mouth phenomenon that's changing lives around the world--a journey into your true self and amazing potential. Do you want to change your life? Well, who says you can't? A moment came in Daniel Chidiac's life when he realized he wasn't living his truth. His work didn't fulfill him, his relationships hurt him, and he was making choices that didn't align with his true values. But he did have the ability to know his own purpose--a gift we all have--and thus his journey began. Daniel studied the lives of great achievers, sought guidance from spiritual leaders, and discovered the secrets for shaping one's own destiny. He used his personal experience of changing his life to create this powerful seven-step guide to discovering your true self, committing to your own life, and pushing beyond your known limits. Standing out for his incisive wisdom and complete lack of gimmicks, Daniel Chidiac is an inspiring, insightful, and honest guide. His empowering system has spread organically, and it has already changed the lives of legions of readers. With practical exercises and interactive tools, this book challenges you to ask hard questions and make life-changing decisions--and ultimately guides you to the fulfillment you have been seeking. Get ready to be intrigued, fascinated, and amazed. Not by this book, but by your own power.

John Langan's second collection of horror and weird fiction has some of the author's most renowned short fiction and was celebrated by critics and readers alike. Previously only offered in ebook and paperback formats, Dark Regions Press is bringing the first signed limited edition of the book to Langan fans with a brand new story entitled "A Partial List of Monsters, Scenes, and Adverbs That Will Not Appear in My Next Story" by the author exclusive to this edition, the original wraparound painting by artist Santiago Caruso, a new afterword and much more.The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies by John Langan Deluxe Special Edition is limited to just 52 signed and lettered copies worldwide, printed in an oversized 7"x10" format, bound in leather and housed in a premium slipcase. Featuring a high quality dust jacket, satin book ribbon and the original wraparound color artwork by Santiago Caruso as illustrated end sheets, the book is signed by author John Langan, afterword writer Laird Barron, introduction writer Jeffrey Ford, cover artist Santiago Caruso and interior artist Ian Hinley.

Designed for reading courses at the intermediate and advanced level, Developing Critical Reading Skills uses practice prose similar to the kind that students will encounter in the classroom, encouraging them to analyze, interpret, question, and even challenge the words of the writer. The seventh edition continues to feature a wide range of interesting and diverse selections, excellent coverage of critical reading skills, and a concluding section on reading short stories. It now also includes coverage of reading textbooks and interpreting visuals.

A workbook of example and practice questions to build a solid foundation of skills in reading fiction, prose, poetry, drama and nonfiction, as well as English language grammar and usage, and writing paragraphs and essays, as measured by the GED, TASC, and HiSET high school equivalency reading and writing tests; includes answers and explanations for all lesson exercises, and pretest and posttest questions.

This book is for anyone who wants to provide their learners with rich and rewarding reading experiences. Drawing on current reading theory, the book promotes the teaching of reading in a theoretically sound way, moving beyond a comprehension-testing approach to reading. The practical part of the book provides a collection of accessible, generic activities so that teachers can support and develop learners' reading skills and strategies. Its scope is wide-ranging, from promoting reading and developing fluency, to exploiting digital sources, using learner-generated texts and assessing reading. Further activities support teachers develop excellence in the teaching of reading through guided reflection and action research.

Substance Abuse Recovery in College explains in authoritative detail what collegiate recovery communities are, the types of services they provide, and their role in the context of campus life, with extended examples from Texas Tech University s influential CSAR (Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery) program. Using data from both conventional surveys and end-of-day daily Palm Pilot assessments as well as focus groups, the book examines community members experiences. In addition, the importance of a positive relationship between the recovery community and the school administration is emphasized. Topics covered include: The growing need for recovery services at colleges. How recovery communities support abstinence and relapse prevention. Who are community members and their addiction and treatment histories. Daily lives of young adults in a collegiate recovery community. Challenges and opportunities in establishing recovery communities on campus. Building abstinence support into an academic curriculum. This volume offers clear insights and up-close perspectives of importance to developmental and clinical child psychologists, social workers, higher education policymakers, and related professionals in human development, family studies, student services, college health care, and community services.