Techniques for Reading Assessment and Instruction

Techniques for Reading Assessment and Instruction is designed to be a brief but practical teaching resource that includes step-by-step strategies to help improve students' reading and teachers' reading instruction. The goals of this book are threefold: to help classroom teachers plan for reading assessment, self-assess their own instructional behaviors to improve their teaching performance, and choose appropriate instuctional techniques that make their planning of reading lessons more effective. In this book, Dr. Barbara J. Walker - a nationally recognized authority on reading difficulties - guides teachers in determining what instructional techniques should be used for classroom reading instruction and individual tutoring based on an analysis of assessment data and keen classroom observations.

Barbara J. Walker is professor of reading at Oklahoma State University where she teaches courses in reading difficulties and coordinates the Reading ~ and Math Center. Dr. Walker received her Ed.D. from Oklahoma State University in Curriculum and Instruction, specializing in reading difficulty. Prior to returning to Oklahoma, Dr. Walker was a professor in the Department of Special Education and Reading at Montana State University, Billings, where she coordinated the Reading Clinic. She was a reading specialist in the elementary schools of Stillwater, Oklahoma; organized and taught the college reading program at Vernon Regional Junior College in Vernon, Texas; and coordinated the educational program at the Hogar Paul Harris in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Dr. Walker's research interests focus on teacher development, early literacy intervention, and reading difficulties. Her publications include Diagnostic Teaching of Reading: Techniques for Instruction and Assessment (4th ed.), Supporting Struggling Readers (2nd ed.), Training the Reading Team with Ronald Scherry and Lesley Morrow, Tips for the Reading Team and The Reading Team: A Handbook for K-3 Volunteer Tutors with Lesley Morrow, and Interactive Handbook for Understanding Reading Diagnosis with Kathy Roskos. She is currently coeditor of Literacy Cases Online, a publication of the College Reading Association. Dr. Walker received the College Reading Association's 1997 A. B. Herr Award for outstanding contributions to reading education and was a distinguished finalist for the international Reading Association's 1991 Albert J. Harris Award for research in reading disabilities.

Dr. Walker is a state, national, and international professional leader, having served on the board of directors of the International Reading Association, the College Reading Association, and the Montana State Reading Council. Most important to her, however, is preparing teachers to work with struggling readers. In this capacity, she has helped more than 2,500 struggling readers improve their literacy.