This updated edition second edition, with a timely new afterword by author Ken Goodman unravels a riddle that has long troubled parents, teachers and scholars: learning language sometimes seems ridiculously easy and sometimes impossibly hard. Embraced by teachers worldwide, whole language has sparked renewed interest in well written trade books instead of boring and unnatural textbooks that actually diminish interest in reading. A new generation of authors writing for children and young adults has responded enthusiastically to increasing demand for books that are relevant to our time. This 20th anniversary edition responds to renewed interest in whole language among parents, teachers, and administrators looking for more learner friendly alternatives to the hostile test and text book mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind act. Teachers and parents will find many ideas in this book for helping children make sense of print and build a life-long love of reading.

This position paper contends that the whole language approach to reading instruction has been disproved by research and evaluation but still pervades textbooks for teachers, instructional materials for classroom use, some states' language-arts standards and other policy documents, teacher licensing requirements and preparation programs, and the professional context in which teachers work. The paper finds that many who pledge allegiance to "balanced reading" continue to misunderstand reading development and to deliver "poorly conceived, ineffective reading instruction." It argues that "rooting out whole language" from reading classrooms calls for effort on eight separate fronts. The paper describes what whole language is, why it is contradicted by scientific studies, how it continues in education, and what should be done to correct the situation. (Contains a glossary and 57 notes.) (NKA)

Teachers who attempt to enhance the reading and writing skills of their students face one of the most difficult tasks in education. Not only are reading and writing two of the most difficult processes to teach and reinforce but they are two of the most important. After working with literally thousands of teachers to improve their effectiveness at enhancing these key literacy skills and after surveying the research, we have come to some conclusions about how reading and writing can be taught and reinforced. We present what we have learned in this book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved).

Activities for Teaching Braille More Efficiently at the Beginning Level.

Reading & Writing with English Learners offers kindergarten through fifth grade reading and writing educators a user-friendly guide and framework for supporting English learners in balanced literacy classrooms. Authors Valentina Gonzalez and Melinda Miller lead readers in exploring the components of Reading & Writing with English Learners with a special eye for increasing the effectiveness of instructional methods and quality of instruction to serve English learners. This book shares practical and effective techniques for accommodating reading and writing instruction to design learning that simultaneously increases literacy and language development. Reading & Writing with English Learners was written for: • K-5 Classroom Teachers • ESL Teachers • Reading and Writing Instructional Coaches • District Leaders Reading & Writing with English Learners includes: • the components of Reading & Writing Workshop • accommodations that support English Learners • high yield practices for Reading & Writing Workshop during remote teaching • the role of phonics • a culturally inclusive booklist • activities that support Reading & Writing Workshop And more!

Academic writing often requires students to incorporate material from outside sources (like statistics, ideas, quotations, paraphrases) into their own written texts-a particular obstacle for students who lack strong reading skills. In Connecting Reading and Writing in Second Language Instruction, Alan Hirvela contends that second language writing students should be considered as readers first and advocates the integration of reading and writing instruction with a survey of theory, research, and pedagogy in the subject area. Although the integrated reading-writing model has gained popularity in recent years, many teachers have little more than an intuitive sense of the connections between these skills. As part of the popular Michigan Series on Teaching Multilingual Writers, Connecting Reading and Writing in Second Language Instruction will provide invaluable background knowledge on this issue to ESL teachers in training, as well as teachers who are already practicing.