About the Book
"Reading well across disciplines and within varied contexts will help students to be versatile, flexible, deep readers who can better learn from their reading, transfer skills across subjects, and use strategies to meet the unique demands of reading in each content area."
– Jennifer Serravallo
Research-based, easy-to-use lesson structures for explicit and engaging teaching
In Teaching Reading Across the Day, literacy expert Jennifer Serravallo provides nine effective, predictable, research-based lesson structures that help busy teachers save planning time and focus their teaching—and student attention—on content rather than procedures. Each of the nine lesson structures (read aloud, phonics and spelling, vocabulary, focus, shared reading, close reading, guided inquiry, reader’s theater, and conversation) has its own chapter and features a wealth of resources that let you see the lessons in action in ELA, Science, and Social Studies classes, including:
An annotated teaching vignette, lesson explanation, and research notes
Tips for planning, structure and timing suggestions, and ideas for responsive teaching
Detailed planning templates and 22 accompanying online videos covering over 3 hours of classroom footage
Jen’s reflections, key look-fors, and ideas for next steps
The nine lesson structures can be used with any curriculum or core program, text, and subject, making it easier for teachers to maximize explicit and engaging teaching time across the day, and simplify planning and preparation.
Jen incorporates a wide range of compelling research about how best to teach reading to every student in your class and translates the research (or the science of teaching reading) into high-leverage moves you can count on to deliver powerful lessons again and again. She also honors the art of teaching reading, helping teachers tap into their experience and hone their expertise to make quick, effective classroom decisions that take student learning to the next level.
Table of Contents:
Part 1 - Foundations
Chapter 1 - Teaching Reading Across the Day
Chapter 2 - Engaging, Explicit Instruction
Part 2 - Lesson Structures
Chapter 3 - Read Aloud Lessons
Chapter 4 - Phonics and Spelling Lessons
Chapter 5 - Vocabulary Lessons
Chapter 6 - Focus Lessons
Chapter 7 - Shared Reading Lessons
Chapter 8 - Close Reading Lessons
Chapter 9 - Guided Inquiry Lessons
Chapter 10 - Reader’s Theater Lessons
Chapter 11 - Conversation Lessons
Appendix
About the Author :
Jennifer Serravallo is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning educator, literacy consultant, frequent invited speaker at state and national conferences, and former member of the Parents Magazine editorial board. Jen is best known for creating books (including The Reading Strategies Book 2.0) and resources rooted in research that help make responsive, strategic, differentiated literacy instruction possible for all educators. Jen’s books are used around the world and several have been translated into French, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian. In 2023, she launched her podcast To the Classroom: Conversations with Researchers and Educators.
Jen holds a BA from Vassar College and an MA from Teachers College Columbia University, where she has also taught graduate and undergraduate classes.
Follow Jen on X (@jserravallo) and Instagram (@jenniferserravallo), learn more from her website/blog: www.jenniferserravallo.com, and join the Reading and Writing Strategies Facebook Community.
Review :
Teaching reading is the responsibility of all teachers – but how? This is the book that highlights the critical skills regardless of age or curricula. It emphasizes the active view of reading, the critical nature of reading for purpose, starts from what the reader brings to the text, and acknowledges that reading tasks and purposes can be unique to content areas. Packed with great ideas, grounded in research, and written for the teacher who wants to increase their impact on their students to share the passion for learning.
Teaching reading and learning to read are enormously complex tasks. It certainly involves phonics, but so much more. Jennifer Serravallo does a masterful job of unpacking what is involved in becoming a proficient reader. Equally important, she provides remarkably clear and readable examples, with supporting detail, of how to teach those many essential competencies involved in reading instruction. It′s one thing to talk about what needs to be done to create readers; it′s quite another to actually show how it′s done in the classroom. Clearly Jennifer Serravallo is a master of both! If you′re interested in putting the science of reading into action, this book is for you.
We know that teaching reading is rocket science but aren’t always sure how to fly the ship. This is the instruction manual. It’s the guide you need to right the ship and ensure that students learn to read at high levels. You’ll find practical ideas and examples that help you maneuver the complex world of literacy learning with ease.
This book is packed with tools, tables, tips, and practical lesson structures that support predictability and teacher decision-making. With student engagement front and center, Jen shows us that we don’t have to choose between structured and responsive teaching. Kids need both!
Once in a generation a teacher’s teacher comes along and makes plain what adults can do to ensure children thrive. Jen is that teacher, and this book is required reading for all of us who believe every child can develop powerful literacies, and want a role to play in that development.
This timely, thorough text from educator and author Serravallo (The Reading Strategies Book) presents a convincing case for integrating reading throughout K-8 students’ school day, as well as concrete strategies and structures for making it happen. After two chapters focused on the foundations of reading education and the importance of explicit reading instruction across the disciplines, the subsequent chapters each highlight a specific structure for explicitly engaging students in reading, from read-alouds to reader’s theater. Each chapter in this "Lesson Structures" section is full of detailed examples, research, and resources for lesson planning. Serravallo employs a consistent format in each chapter, opening with an annotated lesson example before providing summaries of the research related to this lesson type, considerations for planning, videos of sample lessons in action, and practical suggestions for teaching the lesson structure. This book provides excellent resources for employing a variety of engaging reading strategies that have wide applicability across K-8 contexts. Purchase for libraries with a focus on reading, explicit instruction, or a new curriculum.
I love the annotated lesson plans that show this is what I had planned, but this happened, because that’s life in the classroom. There’s no scripted program or curriculum that can address the kids in front of you necessarily. The lesson structures [in Teaching Reading Across the Day] offer teachers the background information they need but also the flexibility . . . to make the decisions about what’s best for their students.
