A developmental reader based on a cognitive skills approach, which demystifies the process of teaching reading and thinking in English. The text teaches specific comprehension skills, including previewing, predicting, scanning and skimming.

Based on a cognitive skills approach, these student-centered reading skills texts help students go beyond rote learning to develop the solid reading skills good readers take for granted. You'll find the following skill development areas: -- Reading for Pleasure -- encourages students to master new reading strategies and broaden their vocabularies by helping them select books appropriate to their level and enjoy them on their own. -- Reading Comprehension Skills -- emphasizes strategic reading skills such as skimming, scanning, recognizing topics and main ideas, understanding sentences, and making inferences. -- Thinking Skills -- provides targeted practice in inference and analytical skills. -- Reading Faster -- uses high-interest short fiction and nonfiction passages to help students develop speed and flexibility in their reading. The four sections are intended to be used concurrently. Challenging excerpts from short stories, plays, encyclopedias, and articles help studentsexpand their developmental reading skills. Additional exercises focus on improving reading rate and reading for pleasure.

Ten years ago, Reading Power was launched in an elementary school in Vancouver. It has since evolved into a recognized approach to comprehension instruction being implemented across Canada, in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, and China. This ground-breaking approach showed teachers how to help students think while they read — connect, question, visualize, infer, and transform. Since the publication of the first edition of Reading Power, Adrienne Gear has continued to reflect on and refine her ideas about metacognition, comprehension instruction, and the Reading Power strategies. This revised and expanded edition shares these new understandings, and offers teachers new ideas, new lessons, and, of course, new anchor books to support the Reading Power principles. An ideal resource for teachers familiar to this strategic approach to teaching reading, or for those looking for new ways to connect thinking with reading.

Teaching students specific literacy skills is important--but equally critical, and often overlooked, is giving them the time and opportunity to read actual texts. Bringing together leading scholars, this book focuses on how teachers can improve both the quality and quantity of reading experiences in K-12 classrooms. Essential topics include factors that make reading tasks more or less productive for different types of learners, ways to balance independent reading with whole-class and small-group instruction, how to choose appropriate texts, and the connections between reading engagement and proficiency. The relevant research literature is reviewed, and exemplary practices and programs are described.

Powerful Understanding explores effective ways to build social-emotional skills and help students make connections, question what they read, and reflect on their learning as they develop into stronger readers and learners. Lessons based in both strategic and critical thinking revolve around core anchor books that help integrate inquiry into everything you teach — from social responsibility, to immigration, to life cycles. This highly readable book includes a wealth of classroom examples and extensive hands-on activities designed to help students to think more deeply, learn more widely, and develop a more powerful understanding of what it means to be a responsible and compassionate person.

Writing nonfiction is a key skill that students will need throughout their school lives, and beyond. This remarkable book is designed to help teachers develop a writing program that will enable their students to harness all of their Nonfiction Writing Powers: to Describe, to Instruct, to Compare, to Persuade, to Explain, and to Report. It illustrates ways to encourage students to write because they have something to say, and to recognize that writing well means considering intent and purpose, and choosing the best form of expression. Ideal for teaching writing in the content areas, the book includes guidance on linking writing forms to Science, Social Studies, and other subject areas.