Reading Instruction for Students Who Are at Risk or Have Disabilities

Organized according to the Reading First categories of reading development and instruction as presented in the report of the National Reading Panel, this exciting and timely new text presents teaching strategies for children at-risk, including children of poverty, children for whom English is not their primary language, and children with learning and behavioral disabilities. These are the children No Child Left Behind challenges teachers to serve more effectively. 

The book is more than a list of teaching strategies that are scientifically-validated; the scientifically-validated practices included are integrated into a systematic teaching process that stresses the use of student outcome data within authentic classroom contexts to guide practice.  The teaching strategies have been field tested with at-risk children in both rural and urban teaching settings. Most of the strategies have resulted from work the authors did in their recent four-year federally-funded model-demonstration grant in which they have implemented an extensive reading problem prevention model in grades K-3 in three inner-city schools. Thus, the teaching strategies in the book are ones that the authors implemented every day with at-risk children, not just findings from research articles.

Features of this First Edition Include:

• Content organized around the five components validated by the National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
• Readers learn how to use DIBELS and other curriculum-based assessment results for early identification of children at risk of reading failure and to monitor student progress. A unique feature is using DIBELS assessments to pinpoint student skill development as they acquire alphabetic principle.
• Accompanying DVD shows teacher explicitly teaching letter sound recognition, regular word decoding, sight words, multisyllable word reading, passage reading, vocabulary, and comprehension.
• Text explains how to use Differentiated Instruction to maximize learning for all students.
• Specific strategies are detailed for implementing Response To Intervention (RTI) multi-tier instruction during the reading block.
• Examines building vocabulary knowledge through direct and indirect teaching strategies.
• Comprehension strategies identified by the National Reading Panel that help students derive meaning from text are emphasized. 
• Strategies for individualizing instruction for adolescents and children who are bilingual and/or ESL are included within each chapter.
• Effective strategies for managing classroom behavior, including instruction groups are provided so that student behavior does not interfere with reading instruction.

“While the first chapter captures the very essence of teaching reading, the rest of the text is an absolute gold mine of additional research based instructional strategies appropriate for the college student, the first year teacher, and the veteran reading teacher. I wish I had written it!”

-Pam Matlock, Murray State University

Recommended Reading from LETRS!

Bursuck, W. D., & Damer, M. (2007). Reading instruction for students who are at risk or have disabilities. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

"This is a very useful textbook with several unique features. It thoroughly describes direct instruction procedures in all components of reading. It integrates illustrations and discussions of informal, curriculum-based assessments, including DIBELS, into explanations of all instructional components. It explains what special approaches, programs, and techniques are most appropriate for Tier II and Tier III students and includes charts comparing the characteristics of some often-used intervention approaches.

The authors are more focused on instructional design than on the structure of language, however. For example, they do not clearly differentiate phonemes from graphemes or explain the structural principles of orthography that are important in teaching reading, spelling, and word analysis for vocabulary acquisition. This book, however, offers a great deal of valuable, practical information and is strongly recommended as a textbook for a reading methods course."

-Toni Backstrom, LETRS Program Coordinator

READ THE REVIEW ONLINE HERE: http://www.sopriswest.com/newsletters/NewsLETRS_Apr07.htm