Synopses & Reviews
In response to today’s need to tailor instruction for the lower grades, this comprehensive, practical guide gives aspiring and practicing professionals the methods and techniques they need to become highly effective teachers who are well equipped to help all students become proficient readers and writers.
Creating Literacy Instruction for All Children in Grades Pre-K to 4 features lesson plans for virtually every major literacy skill or strategy, abundant lists of recommended children’s reading, student strategies, numerous reinforcement activities, and illustrations of exemplary teaching, all designed to help teachers incorporate today’s most effective teaching methods and techniques into their literacy teaching.
In this Second Edition, special pedagogical features draw the reader’s attention to issues of recurring importance in literacy instruction while aiding in reviewing and understanding the key concepts, including:
- Listings, descriptions, and discussion of the Common Core Standards
- An added emphasis on developing phonemic awareness and other prereading skills with additional lessons and techniques for struggling students
- A thorough grounding in decoding skills
- Three powerful new research-based comprehension teaching techniques that work especially well with struggling readers: indexing, mystery passages, and WIRC (Writing Intensive Reading Comprehension
- Increased coverage of assessing for learning, featuring a wide range of assessment instruments for reading skills, comprehension, and decoding
- Emphasis on meeting and implementing the Common Core Standards
- References to landmark research describing the most effective practices and information on the average percentile gains achieved when these practices are instituted
- A new Professional Reflection feature that appears in every chapter
Synopsis
Based on its highly successful parent book, this comprehensive, practical book provides its readers with step-by-step guidance for teaching children in grades Pre-K to 4 all major aspects of reading and writing.
In response to today's needs to tailor instruction for the lower grades (pre-K-4), this updated edition features sample lessons for virtually every major literacy skill/strategy and offers numerous reinforcement suggestions and generous listings of materials appropriate for the lower grades. The methods emphasized are those that have been validated by research and/or practice. Extensive coverage is provided for areas of instruction mandated by federal programs such as Reading First: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. However, the text also presents the theories behind the methods, so readers will be free to choose, adapt, and/or construct their own approaches as they create a balanced program of literacy instruction. Because language is the basis for literacy, the text emphasizes language development at all levels. Given the current emphasis on "Leaving No Child Behind," the text explores the role of pre-school and kindergarten programs in providing all students with foundational skills so that they don't experience difficulty learning to read and write. With classrooms becoming increasingly diverse, the text details age-appropriate techniques for working with English language learners and at-risk students.
New to the Second Edition:
- Listing, description, and discussion of Common Core State Standards
- Added emphasis on developing phonemic awareness and other pre-reading skills, with additional lessons and techniques for students who are struggling
- Expanded coverage of phonics and syllabication skills
- Addition of three powerful new research-based teaching techniques that work especially well with struggling readers
- Increased coverage of assessing for learning
About the Author
Thomas G. Gunning, a former elementary school reading consultant and junior high English teacher, is Professor Emeritus, Southern Connecticut State University, where he was department chair and reading clinic director. Gunning is currently an Adjunct Professor, Reading/ Language Arts Department, Central Connecticut State University. Gunning has conducted research on group reading inventories, vocabulary assessment, reading disabilities, intervention programs, readability, response to intervention, decoding processes and strategies, and literacy skills needed to cope with high-stakes tests. Professor Gunning’s other books with Pearson include Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students, Eighth Edition; Assessing and Correcting Reading and Writing Difficulties, Fourth Edition; Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students In Grades 4-8, Third Edition; Developing Higher-Level Literacy in All Students: Building Reading, Reasoning, and Responding; and Closing the Literacy Gap.
Table of Contents
Brief Table of Contents
1 The Nature of Literacy and Today’s Children
2 Teaching All Learners
3 Assessing for Learning
4 Fostering Emergent/Early Literacy
5 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
6 Building Vocabulary
7 Comprehension: Theory and Strategies
8 Comprehension: Text Structures and Teaching Procedures
9 Reading Literature
10 Approaches to Teaching Reading
11 Writing and Reading
12 Creating and Managing a Literacy Program