Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, 2002.
D2415-07619-4503-2 (Paper) 32.95
D2415-07619-4502-4 (Library Edition) 69.95
Preface
Why do so many students fall through the cracks in reading? What can
educators do to prevent this widespread academic free fall? Finding answers
to these tough questions has consumed much of my professional career. In the
early 80's I took a principalship in a failing school, where nearly 75% of
the students were below grade level in reading. Although we were privileged
to raise reading achievement from the 20th to the 70th percentile overall,
many of our students continued to fall through the cracks. For them,
learning to read was an agonizing process, and if help came at all, it was
often too little and too late to overcome the cumulative effects of failure.
I wish I had known then what I know now. Today there is a growing body of
high-quality research to inform our instructional practices—particularly
what we do with those students who are most at-risk of reading failure. Now
we know that early identification and intensive intervention are essential.
Waiting for students to "bloom" like Leo, the winsome Leo Lionni (1971)
character, is an exercise in futility. Now we know, that for those students
at-risk of reading failure, immersion in well-written literature, while
important, isn't nearly enough. We have discovered some essential pieces of
the reading puzzle that we knew very little about twenty or thirty years
ago.
If I could only travel back in time and offer answers to those students who
fell through the cracks while I was a teacher, media specialist, and
principal! Ron Edmonds believed that "we can, whenever and wherever we
choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to
us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it
must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't so far"
(1981, p. 53). Although Edmonds was writing in the broad sense about student
achievement, his statement could well be paraphrased to describe the current
status of reading instruction: We can, whenever and wherever we choose,
successfully teach all children to read. We already know more than we need
to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about
the fact that we haven't so far.
THE GOALS OF THIS BOOK
In 1998, I wrote The Principal's Guide to Raising Reading Achievement
and developed a workshop for principals based on my personal experiences
with raising reading achievement. My goal was to share the very latest in
reading research with practitioners to help them make literacy a reality for
more of their students. I recently heard from one of those principals,
Kathie Dobberteen, the principal of La Mesa Dale Elementary School in the
San Diego (CA) area.
Here is an excerpt from Kathie's message:
"I haven't written to you in
several years, but I went to one of your workshops in 1998. You emailed me a
number of times as I was exploring what else we could do to raise our
literacy levels, especially in first grade. You talked to me about the
importance of phonemic awareness, reading-a-lot, and spending more time on
reading instruction. Last year, because of your help, [and Kathie's
outstanding instructional leadership and powerful vision for what her school
could become] we finally have 90% of our students reading at and above grade
level at our Title I school (up from 42% in 1996). Ninety-four percent of
our fifth graders went on to middle school reading at and above grade level,
with 33% of them reading at 8th and 9th grade levels."
(K. Dobberteen,
personal communication, August, 2001).
Kathie and her staff have received three major awards for their
significant instructional accomplishments: Title I Distinguished School;
California Distinguished School, and one of six Chase School Change Awards
given yearly by Fordham University and the Chase Manhattan Foundation.
Although the workshop that Kathie attended was designed for elementary
school principals, there were always a number of middle and high school
principals who came, looking for ways to increase literacy in their schools.
To meet their needs more specifically I developed a workshop for secondary
administrators, and in 2001 I followed up with a book: Raising Reading
Achievement in Middle and High Schools: Five Simple-to-Follow Strategies for
Principals (Corwin Press). Although my workshops were primarily intended for
principals, many administrators brought teams of teachers or invited me back
to present to their staff members. I discovered that many new teachers knew
very little about how to teach reading. Their preservice training had given
short shrift to reading instruction. Even remedial and special education
teachers were frustrated at their lack of exposure to current research, best
practices, and strategies that worked with their difficult-to-reach
students. They eagerly poured through the roller-bag of resources I bring to
each workshop, asked questions, and stayed "after class" to talk about their
most challenging students. I soon realized that a book about reading
instruction was needed, not only for teachers—classroom, special education,
and reading—but also for the many administrators who lead schools and
supervise special programs.
I have written this book with the following goals in mind:
- To give you a short course in the most current reading research regarding
how students learn to read, regardless of age or grade, so that you can make
informed decisions about curriculum and instruction;
- To help you understand that learning to read is only the first step;
students must also develop fluency, acquire cognitive strategies, and
continue to read-a-lot to deepen their knowledge and understanding;
- To focus your attention on the variables at work in your school and
district that can be altered to create a reading culture and make a huge
difference in reading achievement—especially for those students who are
currently falling through the cracks; and
- To convince you of the power that rests in you and your colleagues to
teach every child to read.
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
This book has been written for a broad audience. There are few, if any,
educators today who are not deeply concerned with literacy levels in their
schools. From superintendents to the most recently hired teachers—everyone
is feeling the relentless pressure of high-stakes tests combined with a
growing population of at-risk students and resources that are spread too
thin. This book is intended for the following groups:
- Teachers of all kinds and levels—regular classroom, special education,
bilingual education, and remedial reading—who are looking for ways to teach
reading more effectively;
- Special education, bilingual, and Title I administrators who need
assistance in evaluating and improving their district reading programs;
- Superintendents and principals who need specific and timely information
about how to raise reading achievement in their district and schools;
- Central office administrators (e.g. those responsible for school
improvement, grant writing, staff development, and curriculum selection) who
need a quick-reading and practical compendium of the best practices and
programs in reading instruction; and
- College and university professors who are looking for a beginning-level,
but comprehensive book on reading instruction.
WHAT THIS BOOK IS NOT
While the reader will certainly gain a great deal that will be of
practical value in the classroom from reading this book, it is not intended
to be a comprehensive instructional guide, nor does it contain a recommended
and "guaranteed to work for every child" program. Many children require a
customized package of instruction based on their unique learning needs.
Professional educators not only need a variety of successful methods and
approaches in their tool-kits, but also the freedom to make informed
professional judgments.
Although I do use the terms literate and literacy throughout the book when
referring to the abilities to read, write, and speak at or above the
expectations held for a particular age or grade level, this book is
primarily about reading. Of course, if one is teaching reading effectively,
one's students must talk and write about what they are reading every day, in
every subject, and at every grade level. This book, however, is only about
reading.
READING TO LEARN
Most authors write books hoping that somebody, anybody will actually
read them. I have much higher expectations than that. My hope is that you
will not merely read this book, but "read to learn" from this book. And, my
further hope is that you will take what you have learned and put it to work
in your school, classroom, or district. To that end, and since this is a
book about reading, I have included a number of features to help you more
readily understand and remember what you read.
- Graphic organizers that provide visual representations or summaries of
various aspects of the text;
- Short sidebars that offer you a breather from "reading to learn" and give
you the opportunity for reflection;
- A glossary that defines the many technical terms that are needed to
understand the complexities of reading instruction;
- A variety of resources including a comprehensive list of phonics readers,
a set of lesson plans for teaching the four essential cognitive strategies
to students, and sample forms and templates to help you set goals and plan
for reading instruction; and
- Fifty Strategies to Build a Reading Culture Checklist.
OVERVIEW OF THE CONTENTS
Chapter 1 describes the students who are falling through the cracks. You
will learn who these students are and why there are so many of them. You
will also have an opportunity to "meet" some parents whose children have
fallen through the cracks, as well as adults who are living with illiteracy.
Chapter 2 is packed with information and ideas to get you started including:
- brief definitions of each of the nine pieces of the reading puzzle, i.e.
the components of a reading program that are essential in order for students
to become literate at every grade level;
- a list of ten alterable variables that when changed in research-based ways
will impact the literacy levels of your students; and
- twelve fallacies about reading instruction that frequently fool us and
often contribute to the reading failure of at-risk students.
Chapters 3 through 7 provide in-depth discussions of each of the puzzle
pieces.
Chapter 3 explains the pieces that are crucial to unlocking the
written code: phonological awareness, phonics, and spelling. These three
pieces, when solidly put into place, will give students the foundation they
need to acquire literacy.
Chapter 4 adds another piece, albeit an often forgotten one, to the reading
puzzle: fluency. When students do not read fluently, they do whatever they
can to avoid reading. Yet, students will not develop fluency without
reading-a-lot. What is the answer to this conundrum? You will find out in
Chapter 4.
Chapter 5 discusses the three puzzle pieces that are essential to
gaining meaning from text for the purposes of both learning and
enjoyment—language, knowledge, and cognitive strategies.
Chapter 6 describes my favorite piece of the puzzle: reading-a-lot. As a
former media specialist and voracious reader myself, I have a passion for
putting students and books together. I know the importance of reading in my
own life, as well as the lives of my two children, and I won't rest until
every student learns to love reading-a-lot.
Chapter 7 shows you how to put the final and centerpiece of the puzzle—a
reading culture—in place in classrooms, schools, and districts. A reading
culture is a school-wide way of doing things that supports the development
of literacy for every student. A highly persuasive and pervasive reading
culture is characterized by twelve traits and in Chapter 8 you will find
fifty site-tested strategies for developing each of these traits in your own
setting.
THE CHALLENGE
Be ready to be challenged as you read. You will be asked to examine your
long-standing beliefs about reading, evaluate the results you are currently
achieving, and then determine what needs to be changed in your classroom,
school, or district. I am confident that Teach Them All to Read: Catching
the Kids Who Fall through the Cracks will give you the tools you need to do
just that!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although I am the author of Teach Them All to Read: Catching the Kids
who Fall through the Cracks, writing this book would not have been possible
without the help of others. I gratefully acknowledge the contributions and
suggestions of the following educators who read all or portions of this
manuscript, made substantive comments and suggestions for improvement,
answered specific questions I had about various pieces of the reading
puzzle, or shared their down-in-the-trenches experiences: Joseph Torgesen,
Mary Damer, William Bursuck, Dennis Munk, Nettie Griffin, Marguerite Held,
Kathie Dobberteen, Jan Antrim, Marcia Davidson, Becky Rosenthal, John
Correll, Kathy Ryan, Jeanne Wanzek, Jan Rauth, Linda Thomas, and the
thousands of teachers, principals, and central office administrators who
have attended my reading workshops and asked all of the questions that I
have attempted to answer in this book.
I must credit Ann Walker, Assistant Executive Director of the National
Association of Elementary School Principals, and Gracia Alkema, the
president and publisher of Corwin Press, for originally conceiving the idea
of a workshop for principals on raising reading achievement. I am especially
appreciative to Ann for the feedback she gave to me during the development
and piloting of those early workshops and for her continued support and
encouragement.
My profound thanks are extended to Larche Farrill, former administrator and
now director of Outreach for the Missouri Council of School Administrators
for inviting me to be a part of the Readership Academy in Missouri over the
past three years. Larche and a roundtable of principals conceived the idea
of a program for principals focused on reading improvement, obtained grant
funding, and then invited principals to five sites around the state to
learn, share, and network with their colleagues. The principals and teachers
of Missouri have taught me much about both leadership and reading; I now
count many of them as good friends.
I am, as always, grateful and lovingly indebted to my husband and business
partner, E. Raymond Adkins. He plays a variety of roles during the writing
of all of my books--copy editor, sounding board, encourager, supporter, and
even nursemaid. He anticipates my every need, is always there when I need
him, and his advice is unfailingly sound. He is the unsung co-author of this
book.
For a complete list of all of Elaine's titles visit The
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Teach Them ALL to Read: Catching the Kids Who Fall Through the Cracks