About the Book
Now in a substantially revised and updated second edition, this comprehensive professional resource and text is based on cutting-edge research. In each chapter, leading scholars provide an overview of a particular aspect of comprehension, offer best-practice instructional guidelines and policy recommendations, present key research questions still to be answered, and conclude with stimulating questions for individual study or discussion. All 25 chapters are new, with coverage of such timely topics as differentiated instruction, technology and reading comprehension, teaching English language learners, and the implications of current neuroscientific findings.
Table of Contents:
Introduction, Block and Parris. I. Theoretical Directions for the Future: What We Have Learned Since the National Reading Panel Report (2000). Parris, Gambrell, and Schleicher, Beyond Borders: A Global Perspective on Reading Comprehension. Block and Duffy, Research on Teaching Comprehension: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going. Sadoski, Dual Coding Theory: Reading Comprehension and Beyond. Cartwright, Cognitive Flexibility and Reading Comprehension: Relevance to the Future. Baker, Metacognition in Comprehension Instruction: What We’ve Learned Since NRP. Caccamise, Snyder, and Kintsch, Constructivist Theory and the Situation Model: Relevance to Future Assessment of Reading Comprehension. II. Neuroscience: What Brain-Based Research Tells Us About Reading Comprehension. Paivio, Looking at Reading Comprehension through the Lens of Neuroscience. Block and Parris, Using Neuroscience to Inform Reading Comprehension Instruction. Caine, How Neuroscience Informs Our Teaching of Elementary Students. Parris, How Neuroscience Informs Our Teaching of Adolescent Students. III. Improving Comprehension Instruction. Thompson, Transforming Classroom Instruction to Improve the Comprehension of Fictional Texts. Williams, Explicit Instruction Can Help Primary Students Learn to Comprehend Expository Text. Smolkin, McTigue, and Donovan, Explanation and Science Text: Overcoming the Comprehension Challenges in Nonfiction Text for Elementary Students. Reznitskaya, Anderson, Dong, Li, I. H. Kim, and S. Y. Kim, Learning to Think Well: Application of Argument Schema Theory to Literacy Instruction. Headley, Improving Reading Comprehension through Writing. Malloy and Gambrell, New Insights on Motivation in the Literacy Classroom. IV. Differentiated Comprehension Instruction. Duke and Martin, Comprehension Instruction in Action: The Elementary Classroom. Fisher and Frey Comprehension Instruction in Action: The Secondary Classroom. Hock, Brasseur, and Deshler, Comprehension Instruction in Action: The At-Risk Student. Rueda, Velasco, and Lim, Comprehension Instruction for English Learners. V. Technology And Comprehension Instruction: New Directions. Gee, Games and Comprehension: The Importance of Specialist Language. Leu, Coiro, Castek, Hartman, Henry, and Reinking, Research on Instruction and Assessment in the New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension. Dalton and Rose, Scaffolding Digital Comprehension. Lacina, Technologically Based Teacher Resources for Designing Comprehension Lessons.VI. Conclusion. Parris and Block, Summing Up. Pressley, Epilogue: What the Future of Reading Research Could Be.
About the Author :
Cathy Collins Block, PhD, has served on the graduate faculty of Texas Christian University (TCU) since 1977. She presently serves, has served, or was elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association, National Reading Conference, Literacy First, New Zealand AWARD Program, U.S. Department of Education Regional Research Laboratory, Pacific Resources for Education and Learning Laboratory, National Center for Learning Disabilities, IBM Education Board of Advisors, National Center for Learning Disabilities, America Tomorrow, and Nobel Learning Communities. Dr. Block has written more than 250 research articles, books, and chapters concerning comprehension development, vocabulary achievement, exemplary teaching practices, and effects of curricular initiatives on student literacy success. She has taught every grade level, from preschool to graduate school, and served as consultant to hundreds of school districts in the United States and around the world. In 2005, she received the highest award bestowed by TCU to a professor for her outstanding teaching and scholarship across the country: the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and Scholarship. Sheri R. Parris, MEd, is currently completing her PhD at the University of North Texas while teaching undergraduate reading courses. Her major area of study is reading education, with a minor in neuroscience. As a former middle school teacher, her emphasis is on secondary reading issues. Currently, she serves as Secretary and Vice President of the Gifted and Talented Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association (IRA) and has recently served on the IRA Adolescent Literacy Committee. Ms. Parris was invited to speak at the 2007 IRA conference to present "The Expertise of Adolescent Literacy Teachers," published in April 2007 in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Additionally, she coauthored two chapters in the 2006 book Collaborative Literacy: Using Gifted Strategies to Enrich Learning for Every Student (by Susan E. Israel, Dorothy A. Sisk, and Cathy Collins Block), which was nominated for the 2007 Ed Fry Book Award of the National Reading Conference.
Review :
"This is a book that needs to be read by all educators! This second edition examines groundbreaking research that is becoming more important in education today, such as the brain processes involved in the ability to comprehend text. This book is an invaluable resource for teachers of all grade levels who are serious about reading and comprehension." - John Scovill, Jr., third-grade teacher, Washington County School District, St. George, Utah, USA. "This volume, a most worthy follow-up to the first edition, gets to the heart of how we comprehend text and how to best foster the development of comprehension in students. The array of topics and the quality of the chapters contribute breadth and depth to the ongoing evolution of knowledge in this critical area. This book is well situated at the convergence of theory and practice and, as such, I recommend it for graduate courses for teachers and researchers." - Peter Afflerbach, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Maryland, USA. "From theory to classroom practice, this well-organized and highly usable text represents an integrative view of the nature of reading comprehension. The text will provide graduate students with comprehensive foundational knowledge and will stimulate researchers in the field to consider new ways to investigate reading comprehension and classroom instruction. Block and her colleagues have developed a book that offers information and support for teachers of young, adolescent, and struggling learners, as well as English language learners." - Pamela J. Dunston, School of Education, Clemson University, USA
