Recommended Professional Books

  For every teacher who has ever been overwhelmed at the idea of "teaching reading" to students, Strategies that Work-Teaching Comprehension to enhance Understanding, is a book for you. The authors, Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, tackle the enormous task of illustrating what teaching students to
read for understanding can look like in the classroom setting. The book discusses five comprehension strategies that are vital for creating meaning from text: Making Connections; Questioning; Visualizing and inferring; Determining Importance in Text; and Synthesizing Information. What separates this book from others you may have read is the actual classroom application that the authors offer readers. Any teacher who reads this book will begin to understand how these strategies can be implemented into his/her own classroom practices. This is an invaluable tool for any teacher regardless of grade level.

   Step back from your classroom for a moment and enter into Debbie Miller's first grade classroom. You will notice students who love to read, sharing what they have read with their peers, asking questions to clarify, and self-motivated projects everywhere. How do they do this when they are only emergent readers? In this book, Debbie Miller explains her month-by-month strategy approach to teaching her students the importance of reading for meaning. This book is filled with concrete examples, usable ideas, and motivating stories of how her students accomplish the task of reading and making meaning. I recommend this book to all elementary reading teachers. There is something here for everyone.


    Linda Hoyt follows up her well known books Make It Real: Strategies for Success with Informational Texts and Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension with this new title, certain to have a positive impact on elementary school teaching. This text is a collection of short, easy to read and practical essays filled with ready to use strategies for teaching and assessing reading comprehension.  There are a variety of checklists, graphic organizers, sample lessons, and suggested book lists which make this book a must have for every teacher.

    This book is by far the best resource on vocabulary instruction available today. The authors use common-sense language to explain how to make vocabulary instruction meaningful--and why many commonly used techniques are ineffective. Of the essential elements of reading instruction, vocabulary has easily been the most neglected, despite its clear connection with reading comprehension. This book provides teachers with real, usable methods that have been proven effective.



  Elin Keene uses a practical format to bring home the effect of difficult text on the early reader. Each of her chapters presents a different comprehension strategy. She opens the chapter with a text that was difficult for her and it will be difficult for YOU! Then she models how the strategy may be taught and understood.  Mosaic is a beautifully written text that weaves together the strategies that all proficient readers use to comprehend text at any level.