Overview
Now in a revised and expanded third edition, this widely adopted text provides a comprehensive guide to effective literacy instruction in the elementary grades. Distinguished scholar and educator Michael Pressley presents research-based, classroom-tested best practices for combining skills-based and whole language approaches in the context of a highly motivating environment. Updated throughout with the latest data, the book explains the theoretical underpinnings of recommended strategies and techniques and shows how exemplary teachers actually put them into practice. Three all-new chapters provide state-of-the-science coverage of fluency, vocabulary, and writing.Synopsis
This widely adopted text provides a comprehensive guide to effective literacy instruction in the elementary grades. Distinguished scholar and educator Michael Pressley presents research-based, classroom-tested best practices for combining skills-based and whole-language approaches in the context of a highly motivating environment. The book explains the theoretical underpinnings of recommended strategies and techniques and shows how exemplary teachers actually put them into practice.
Booknews
Pressley (Catholic education, psychology, U. of Notre Dame) presents the second edition of this text for reading educators and specialists, staff developers and in-service professionals who focus on reading, teacher educators, graduate students, policymakers and parents concerned with elementary school reading instruction. The new edition incorporates material from the wealth of literacy research completed since the publication of the first edition in 1998. The revised text includes new material on phonemic awareness, comprehension problems, decoding and comprehension, vocabulary instruction, development of word knowledge, the use of many motivational mechanisms in the classroom, and the place of Reading Recovery instructional techniques within balanced instruction. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Editorials
From the Publisher
"No one does a better job of describing a truly balanced approach to reading instruction than Michael Pressley, particularly with the new chapters on fluency, vocabulary, and writing. If I had only ten books on reading on my bookshelves, this would be one of them."--Michael F. Graves, PhD, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota"After reading the third edition of this book, I knew that I had another valuable resource for my classroom. I was encouraged to find coverage of new aspects of reading instruction, including new research that is relevant to my students. Current instructional standards are reflected in the new chapters on fluency, vocabulary, and writing. I highly recommend this book to elementary teachers and special educators."--Sheri Louis, MA, Special Education Teacher, Westcott Junior High School, Westbrook, Maine
"Reading Instruction That Works, Third Edition, demonstrates once again how scholarship can inform instructional practice. With a keen analytical eye, Pressley takes disparate research findings and integrates them into a model of teaching children to read that goes well beyond the recommendations of the National Reading Panel. Moving thinking in the field forward, this third edition is an invaluable resource for both emerging scholars of literacy development and accomplished practitioners and researchers. The reader is left with an overarching sense of what is important: Pressley shows how effective literacy instruction begets engagement and how, as teachers learn to become excellent, 'they also seem to become agents of peace in children's lives.'"--Anne McGill-Franzen, PhD, Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, and Reading Center, University of Tennessee "This book is a tremendous resource for teachers and principals in school districts across the country. It emphasizes research-based practice in a manner that supports the importance of balanced reading instruction. Ideal for teachers' book groups and district-wide staff development initiatives, the book is also an important reference for reading specialists and reading supervisors. School districts could avoid a lot of 'bandwagons' by making use of the wealth of research in this text."--Carol S. Beers, School of Education, College of William and Mary; former Superintendent, Williamsburg-James City County (Virginia) Public Schools