About the Book
Now in a revised and expanded third edition, this widely adopted text provides a comprehensive guide to effective literacy instruction in the elementary grades. Distinguished scholar and educator Michael Pressley presents research-based, classroom-tested best practices for combining skills-based and whole language approaches in the context of a highly motivating environment. Updated throughout with the latest data, the book explains the theoretical underpinnings of recommended strategies and techniques and shows how exemplary teachers actually put them into practice. Three all-new chapters provide state-of-the-science coverage of fluency, vocabulary, and writing.
Table of Contents:
Introduction. Whole Language. Skilled Reading. Children Who Experience Problems in Learning to Read. Before Reading Words Begins. Learning to Recognize Words. Fluency, with Lauren Fingeret. Vocabulary, with Laurel Disney and Kendra Anderson. Expert Primary-Level Teaching of Literacy Is Balanced Teaching, with Ruth Wharton-McDonald and Jennifer Mistretta Hampston. The Need for Increased Comprehension Instruction, with Ruth Wharton-McDonald. Writing, with Mary M. Juzwik. Motivation and Literacy. Concluding Reflections... for the Time Being.
About the Author :
Michael Pressley, PhD, was University Distinguished Professor, Director of the Doctoral Program in Teacher Education, and Director of the Literacy Achievement Research Center at Michigan State University. An expert on effective elementary literacy instruction, he was the author or editor of more than 300 journal articles, chapters, and books. Dr. Pressley was the recipient of the 2004 E. L. Thorndike Award (American Psychological Association, Division 15), the highest award given for career research accomplishment in educational psychology.
Review :
'No one does a better job of describing a truly balanced approach to reading instruction than Michael Pressley, particularly with the new chapters on fluency, vocabulary, and writing. If I had only ten books on reading on my bookshelves, this would be one of them.' - Michael F. Graves, PhD, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota
'After reading the third edition of this book, I knew that I had another valuable resource for my classroom. I was encouraged to find coverage of new aspects of reading instruction, including new research that is relevant to my students. Current instructional standards are reflected in the new chapters on fluency, vocabulary, and writing. I highly recommend this book to elementary teachers and special educators.' - Sheri Louis, MA, Special Education Teacher, Westcott Junior High School, Westbrook, Maine
'Reading Instruction That Works, Third Edition, demonstrates once again how scholarship can inform instructional practice. With a keen analytical eye, Pressley takes disparate research findings and integrates them into a model of teaching children to read that goes well beyond the recommendations of the National Reading Panel. Moving thinking in the field forward, this third edition is an invaluable resource for both emerging scholars of literacy development and accomplished practitioners and researchers. The reader is left with an overarching sense of what is important: Pressley shows how effective literacy instruction begets engagement and how, as teachers learn to become excellent, 'they also seem to become agents of peace in children's lives'.' - Anne McGill-Franzen, PhD, Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, and Reading Center, University of Tennessee
'No one does a better job of describing a truly balanced approach to reading instruction than Michael Pressley, particularly with the new chapters on fluency, vocabulary, and writing. If I had only ten books on reading on my bookshelves, this would be one of them.'- Michael F. Graves, PhD, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota
'After reading the third edition of this book, I knew that I had another valuable resource for my classroom. I was encouraged to find coverage of new aspects of reading instruction, including new research that is relevant to my students. Current instructional standards are reflected in the new chapters on fluency, vocabulary, and writing. I highly recommend this book to elementary teachers and special educators.' - Sheri Louis, MA, Special Education Teacher, Westcott Junior High School, Westbrook, Maine
