Designing Meaning-Based Interventions for Struggling Readers

This highly practical book helps K-8 teachers implement effective reading interventions that support meaningful comprehension and engage students with interesting, age-appropriate texts. Andrew P. Johnson presents a range of strategies for addressing difficulties in the core areas of word identification, fluency, and comprehension. Packed with illustrative figures, the book provides guidance and tools for assessing reading problems, combining and adapting interventions for particular students, planning writing activities to enhance reading, aligning efforts within a response-to-intervention framework, and designing individualized education programs. Informed by current research, Johnson candidly targets "educational malpractice” and helps readers puzzle through the controversies surrounding dyslexia diagnoses and special education decision making.

Table of Contents:
Introduction I. Background Information 1. Instruction and Interventions 2. Educational Research and Theoretical Models 3. Understanding the Reading Process 4. Coming to a Common Understanding II. Elements of a Meaning-Based Intervention for Reading 5. How a Meaning-Based Intervention for Reading Works 6. Language Experience Activities 7. Word Work 8. Sight Words and Scope and Sequence Carts 9. Word Identification Strategies 10. Cloze and Maze Activities: Semantic Cueing 11. Writing for Reading 12. Fluency 13. Comprehension 14. Reading Practice (More, Please) III. Diagnosing, Assessing, and Monitoring Progress 15. Standardized Tests 16. Diagnosing the Problem 17. Progress Monitoring IV. Individualized Education Programs 18. Individualized Education Programs for Reading 19. Peer-Reviewed Research V. Designing Reading Interventions 20. Response-to-Intervention Particulars 21. Scientifically Based Research 22. When the Gold Standard Is Un-Golden: A Review of Torgesen et al. (2009) 23. Evaluating Research 24. Students with Dyslexia VI. Issues in Special Education 25. Problems in the Special Education World Epilogue References Index

About the Author :
Andrew P. Johnson, PhD, is Professor of Literacy Instruction and Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He specializes in literacy instruction for students with intellectual and learning disabilities, response to intervention for reading and writing, strategies for the inclusive classroom, and advanced pedagogy. Prior to his university career, he taught in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms for 9 years. Dr. Johnson is the author of numerous academic articles, book chapters, and books related to literacy and learning, and hosts a podcast, The Reading Instruction Show.

Review :
"Johnson's presentation of a meaning-based approach in the design of interventions for all struggling readers is well written and convincingly argued. This instructional plan is appropriate for any child experiencing difficulties acquiring reading proficiencies, including those labeled as dyslexics. Johnson's approach shares little with traditional methods for teaching struggling readers--and I hope it will initiate needed changes in remedial and special education. If only every teacher preparing to become a reading specialist or special educator could read this book before they began their student teaching apprenticeship!"--Richard L. Allington, PhD, College of Education (Emeritus), The University of Tennessee, Knoxville "This book masterfully synthesizes the latest literacy acquisition research and provides critical pedagogical practices for targeting each student’s learning needs. It is an essential resource for preservice teachers, classroom teachers, reading interventionists, and special education teachers interested in capitalizing on responsive decision making. Johnson presents interventions that are cleverly designed to support accelerative progress, ensuring all students learn to read."--Mary R. Van Etten, MEd, district literacy specialist/Reading Recovery coordinator, Muskogee Public Schools, Oklahoma "During my time as a special educator and instructional coach, I longed for a framework that operationalized a meaning-based approach to reading interventions. Johnson lays out the rationale for such an approach and follows it up with a practical process. This book is a 'must read' for every special educator and for any educator who wants a solid resource for designing reading instruction that meets the needs of today's diverse classrooms."--Staci Gilpin, MSEd, former teacher and instructional coach; doctoral student in Educational Foundations and Research, University of North Dakota "Johnson provides a refreshing look at interventions for struggling readers and the need to focus on making meaning from text. He reinforces the idea that a majority of our students know how to read, but lack the skills necessary to make meaning. I appreciate this book's frank discussions of intervention fidelity, direct instruction, and the need to recognize the nuances each of our students bring with them. Johnson shares a concrete process for designing meaning-based interventions that I look forward to bringing to our special education licensure program!"--Amy Murzyn, EdD, School of Education and Social Work, College of St. Scholastica-