Synopses & Reviews
The latest from well-known author and literacy expert Richard Allington is intended as the first step in preparing future teachers to provide early adolescents with high-quality literacy instruction. What Really Matters for Middle School Readers: From Research to Practice looks at the areas that struggling adolescents find most difficult—meaning, vocabulary, (especially for academic words), and inferential comprehension—and focuses on ways to foster accelerated growth. Dr. Allington stresses that through expanding the volume of high-success reading that students experience each day, as well as through the wide variety of additional classroom strategies and methodologies included in the text, middle school students can achieve a working literacy proficiency.
"I was absolutely riveted and engrossed in the material at the beginning of the first chapter…The information presented should be the very first in-service teachers receive at the beginning of the school year. Everything from the changing demographics to the lack of reading instruction in the middle years, to the effective teaching strategies should be sung from on high in every district of America." -- Theresa Barone, Derby Middle School
Dick Allington is professor of literacy studies at the University of Tennessee. He is past president of the International Reading Association and the National Reading Conference (now the Literacy Research Association). His research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health. He has published over 150 scholarly papers and more than 10 books. His writing has been focused on translating research findings into educational practice.
Review
This book is a very good resource for novice teachers. The material is well organized, up-to-date, and accurate. One of its strengths is the inclusion of current facts about struggling readers and how the shift in education strives to keep a grip on them as they improve…I agree that literate conversation is not a method used very often in middle school classrooms, but the author has done a good job in sharing explanations and examples of this effective methodology. -- Middle School Teacher from Memphis, TN
I was absolutely riveted and engrossed in the material at the beginning of the first chapter…The information presented should be the very first in-service teachers receive at the beginning of the school year. Everything from the changing demographics to the lack of reading instruction in the middle years, to the effective teaching strategies should be sung from on high in every district of America. -- Theresa Barone (Derby Middle School)
Synopsis
KEY BENEFIT Helps teachers provide high-quality literacy lessons and stresses expanding the volume of high-success reading students experience each day.
KEY TOPICS Reading development in grades 5 through 9, going beyond decoding as the problem, improving limited meaning vocabulary, addressing reading difficulties, reading with comprehension, enhancing literate conversation, summarizing after reading, ensuring effective instruction all day long
MARKET Teachers of reading in the middle grades / adolescent ages
Synopsis
The latest from well-known author and literacy expert Richard Allington is intended as the first step in preparing future teachers to provide early adolescents with high-quality literacy instruction. What Really Matters for Middle School Readers: From Research to Practice looks at the areas that struggling adolescents find most difficult—meaning, vocabulary, (especially for academic words), and inferential comprehension—and focuses on ways to foster accelerated growth. Dr. Allington stresses that through expanding the volume of high-success reading that students experience each day, as well as through the wide variety of additional classroom strategies and methodologies included in the text, middle school students can achieve a working literacy proficiency.
About the Author
Dick Allington is professor of literacy studies at the University of Tennessee. He is past-president of the International Reading Association and the National Reading Conference (now the Literacy Research Association). His research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health. He has published over 150 scholarly papers and more than 10 books. His writing has been focused on translating research findings into educational practice.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Reading development in grades 5 through 9: Problems and promise
Chapter 2: It’s not decoding that is the problem (but that is what most remediation targets)
Chapter 3: “It’s the words, man”: Limited meaning vocabulary and how to improve it
Chapter 4: Read more, read better: Addressing a major source of reading difficulties
Chapter 5: Reading with comprehension: Understanding understanding
Chapter 6: Literate conversation: A powerful but seldom used method for fostering understanding of complex texts
Chapter 7: Getting the gist of it all: Summarization after reading
Chapter 8: Pulling it all together: Effective instruction all day long
Appendix: Study Guide for What Really Matters for Middle School Readers