Filling a crucial gap in the literature, this immensely practical volume presents innovative tools for helping K-3 students significantly increase their ability to make meaning from texts. The focus is on teaching the comprehension processes employed by expert readers, using a carefully sequenced combination of whole-class activities, specially designed kinesthetic movements, metacognitive strategies, and independent reading. Teachers are taken step by step through implementing the authors' research-based approach with diverse students, including English-language learners and children with special needs. Designed in a convenient, large-size format, the book features clear lesson plans and reproducible activities and visual aids, together with fiction and nonfiction book lists. An invaluable resource for helping teachers meet the mandates of No Child Left Behind, the volume is also ideal for use in preservice and inservice training. Every chapter concludes with thought-provoking exercises, activities, and discussion topics.

Filling a crucial gap in the literature, this immensely practical volume presents innovative tools for helping K-3 students significantly increase their ability to make meaning from texts. The focus is on teaching the comprehension processes employed by expert readers, using a carefully sequenced combination of whole-class activities, specially designed kinesthetic movements, metacognitive strategies, and independent reading. Teachers are taken step by step through implementing the authors' research-based approach with diverse students, including English-language learners and children with special needs. Designed in a convenient, large-size format, the book features clear lesson plans and reproducible activities and visual aids, together with fiction and nonfiction book lists. An invaluable resource for helping teachers meet the mandates of No Child Left Behind, the volume is also ideal for use in preservice and inservice training. Every chapter concludes with thought-provoking exercises, activities, and discussion topics.

"Teaching Comprehension: The Comprehension Process Approach" is unparalleled to any other text in its coverage of how to teach comprehension to students of all ages. Renowned scholar Cathy Collins Block takes on the challenging task of providing what every student needs to know about teaching comprehension, in a concise manner. This text is packed with innovative lessons and approaches based on the latest developments in research-based practices. Designed to suit one's needs, each chapter ends with a complete lesson plan that can be implemented in classrooms with a wide range of student reading ability levels. Features Presents the "Thinking Process Approach" to comprehension instruction through highly effective, research-based lessons. Provides in-depth treatment of literal comprehension processes, inference, imagery, metacognition, and non-fictional texts. The text teaches higher-level comprehension processes based on what students need to fully understand more than ten distinct genres (Chs. 5-12). Addresses the comprehension needs of "Generation Y" students, the roles and responsibilities of teachers and students; and curriculum and instructional activities, featuring specific actions that teachers can take to capture the attention of a new generation of students. Describes new methods of empowering students throughout the text, which advance their own comprehension abilities. An entire chapter is dedicated to new assessment tools that diagnose and prescribe student's comprehension needs and accomplishments (Ch. 10). These assessment tools have been successfully tested in more than 2,000 classrooms throughout the United States and Canada. Heavy emphasis throughout the text on how to use technology to improve comprehension instruction to meet the needs of the 21st century classroom. Rather than merely listing Web site addresses, the text integrates discussion of strategies for using technology into the text. Includes selections of current, children's and adolescent literature as well as many examples of non-fiction selections covering grades K-12. Covers comprehension needs at each stage of students' intellectual development. Contains vivid graphics that thematically recur within chapters and easily guide students' reading throughout the text and demonstrate how to use graphics effectively to teach comprehension.

All key issues of research and practice in comprehension instruction are addressed in this highly regarded professional resource and course text. Leading scholars examine the processes that enable students to make meaning from what they read--and how this knowledge can be applied to improve teaching at all grade levels. Best practices for meeting the needs of diverse elementary and secondary students are identified. Essential topics include strategies for comprehending different types of texts, the impact of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), cutting-edge assessment approaches, and the growing importance of digital genres and multimodal literacies. User-friendly features include end-of-chapter discussion questions. New to This Edition Incorporates the latest research and instructional practices. Chapters on the CCSS, critical theory, culturally responsive instruction, and response to intervention. Chapters on teaching fiction and informational texts in the secondary grades. Expanded coverage of multimodal literacy learning. Timely topics such as text complexity, close reading, digital literacies, and neuroscience are discussed in multiple chapters.

Radically change the way students learn from texts, extending beyond comprehension to critical reasoning and problem solving. Is your reading comprehension instruction just a pile of strategies? There is no evidence that teaching one strategy at a time, especially with pieces of text that require that readers use a variety of strategies to successfully negotiate meaning, is effective. And how can we extend comprehension beyond simple meaning? Bestselling authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nicole Law propose a new, comprehensive model of reading instruction that goes beyond teaching skills to fostering engagement and motivation. Using a structured, three-pronged approach—skill, will, and thrill—students learn to experience reading as a purposeful act and embrace struggle as a natural part of the reading process. Instruction occurs in three phases: Skill. Holistically developing skills and strategies necessary for students to comprehend text, such as monitoring, predicting, summarizing, questioning, and inferring. Will. Creating the mindsets, motivations, and habits, including goal setting and choice, necessary for students to engage fully with texts. Thrill. Fostering the thrill of comprehension, so that students share their thinking with others or use their knowledge for something else. Comprehension is the structured framework you need to empower students to comprehend text and take action in the world.

This practical book grows out of a recent report written by the RAND Reading Study Group (RRSG), which proposed a national research agenda in the area of reading comprehension. Here, RRSG members have expanded on their findings and translated them into clear recommendations to inform practice. Teachers gain the latest knowledge about how students learn to comprehend texts and what can be done to improve the quality of instruction in this essential domain. From leading literacy scholars, the book explains research-based ways to: *Plan effective instruction for students at all grade levels *Meet the comprehension needs of English-language learners *Promote adolescents' comprehension of subject-area texts *Understand the complexities of comprehension assessment *Get optimal benefits from instructional technologies *And much more!

Comprehension instruction is widely recognized as an essential component of developing students' pleasure and profit from reading. Yet despite significant recent gains in knowledge about how comprehension develops and how it can be taught effectively, classroom practice still lags behind research in this crucial area. This volume brings together the field's leading scholars to summarize current research and provide best-practice guidelines for teachers and teacher educators. Each coherently structured chapter presents key findings on a particular aspect of comprehension, discusses instructional practices supported by the research, and addresses what still needs to be known in order to provide the best possible comprehension instruction for every student. Topics covered include assessment, curriculum, methods, and comprehension difficulties, from the preschool level through high school.