Product Description: International literacy assessments have provided ample data for ranking nations, charting growth, and casting blame. Summarizing the findings of these assessments, which afford a useful vantage from which to view world literacy as it evolves, this book examines literate behavior worldwide, in terms of both the ability of populations from a wide variety of nations to read and the practice of literate behavior in those nations...read more

This comprehensive textbook introduces readers to the most influential theories and models of reading and literacy, ranging from behaviorism and early information-processing theories to social constructionist and critical theories. Focusing on how these theories connect with different curricular approaches to literacy instruction (pre-K to grade 12), the author shows how they both shape and are shaped by everyday literacy practices in classrooms. Readers are invited to explore detailed vignettes that offer a practice-based view of theories as they are brought to life in the classroom. Unlike other books on literacy theories, this one devotes substantial attention to linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms and 21st-century technologies. Book Features: Descriptions of well-known curricular models and assessment approaches. Detailed examples from specific areas of reading and literacy instruction that are prominent in today’s schools. Textbox discussions exploring histories, terminology, and debates relevant to the theories presented. Examination of how theories and practices relate to current policy initiatives, such as the Common Core State Standards. User-friendly text features, such as charts, reference lists, and inset boxes to help clarify complex concepts.

Product Description: This must-read book for all literacy educators illuminates the intersection of research on literacy instruction and teacher evaluation. Since 2009, 46 states have changed or revised policies related to evaluating teachers and school leaders...read more

Product Description: Many agree that engaging in research is what makes a teacher’s professional development sustainable, and Researching and Teaching Reading studies the ways in which research and teaching are entwined both within and beyond the classroom...read more

Product Description: The Handbook of Reading Assessment, Second Edition, covers the wide range of reading assessments educators must be able to use and understand to effectively assess and instruct their students. Comprehensive and filled with numerous authentic examples, the text addresses informal classroom based assessment, progress monitoring, individual norm-referenced assessment, and group norm-referenced or ‘high-stakes’ testing...read more

How can teaching across the curriculum improve children’s learning? How can you plan meaningful, imaginative topic work? Cross-Curricular Teaching in the Primary School helps teachers plan a more imaginative, integrated curriculum by presenting in accessible language a rationale and framework for teaching across the subjects. This second edition has been fully updated in light of the new curriculum, and shows how cross-curricular work can contribute to deeper subject knowledge. Illustrated throughout with examples of effective topic work in successful schools, this book provides guidance on the underpinning theory and strategies to facilitate cross-curricular work with young children. With a new structure to emphasise the importance of careful planning and preparation, issues covered include: How children learn The theory and rationale behind the cross-curricular approach Developing the curriculum and lesson planning Teaching and learning in an integrated way at KS1 and KS2 Cross-curricular approaches for maths Whole school approaches and team teaching for cross-curricular teaching The role of support staff in cross-curricular teaching Improving children’s thinking skills Supporting children with special needs Using new media and drama to facilitate cross-curricular learning Assessing cross-curricular learning. Cross-Curricular Teaching in the Primary School provides much needed support for busy student and practising teachers. Packed with practical ideas, it offers an accessible guide to all aspects of introducing an integrated curriculum.

Product Description: What is this thing called literature? Why should we study it? And how? Relating literature to topics such as dreams, politics, life, death, the ordinary and the uncanny, this beautifully written book establishes a sense of why and how literature is an exciting and rewarding subject to study...read more

Product Description: Nearly forty percent of all fourth graders in this country cannot read at grade level, and this number rises to sixty percent for children coming from poor families. This gap in learning increases as students go through grade school and is a primary reason for school failure...read more

Product Description: A comprehensive overview of important contemporary issues in the field of reading research from the mid 1980s to mid 1990s, this well-received volume offers readers an examination of literacy through a variety of lenses--some permitting microscopic views and others panoramic views...read more

Product Description: Frank Smith is internationally acclaimed as an essential contributor to research on the nature of reading and as an originator of the modern psycholinguistic approach to reading instruction. In his publications his aim has always been to support teachers, to encourage them to make teaching decisions based on knowledge and understanding, to analyze what their students are trying to do and why what the students are doing doesn’t always correspond with what they are expected to do...read more