Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach (2nd Edition)

From the Inside Flap:

Preface Facing the Challenge: How Do Today's Teachers Chart a Course to Create Competent, Literate Citizens for Tomorrow?

Helping children become literate is one of the greatest challenges facing teachers today. As some teachers and researchers tout and defend one approach after another, parents are frightened that the new instructional methods aren't getting the job done. The media fuels the controversy with reports lamenting failing test scores and criticism that many schools are failing to produce literate citizens who can function competently.

I have written this textbook to blaze a pathway toward implementing a thoughtful, balanced approach to teaching reading and writing, a pathway that incorporates the most effective teaching approaches and strategies.

The second edition of Literacy for the Twenty-First Century: A Balanced Approach builds on the research-based approaches to literacy instruction outlined in the first edition, the most popular new reading methods textbook in a decade. Why Is This Reader-Friendly Textbook a Best-Seller? Here's What Professors and Their Students Tell Us: This comprehensive text presents several sound approaches to literacy instruction and guides teachers toward best practice in teaching skills as well as and strategies. It functions equally well as a core text for traditional introduction to reading methods courses and for the newer literacy "block" courses. The ten principles of effective reading instruction outlined in Chapter 1 provide a strong, easily understood foundation for the entire book. The text is written with preservice teachers in mind; however, those teachers pressed into service in accelerated credential programs will find the book invaluable as a resource to get up and running quickly. The easily accessible Compendium of Instructional Procedures at the back of the book offers 38 clearly articulated instructional methods, an invaluable resource and quick reference. The text includes many lively descriptions of how real teachers teach reading and writing effectively, through vignettes opening each chapter and colorful part opening sections that present visual reinforcement of each major approach to teaching literacy. The Review section at the end of each chapter includes a chart that contrasts effective and ineffective instructional practices related to the chapter topic. What Is New in the Second Edition? Increased coverage of comprehension: an entire chapter is devoted to the most recent research on facilitating students' comprehension. This chapter details how to help students understand and make meaning from text, once they have learned to decode it. Still more on comprehension: check out the video free to adopters of this text in which the author herself presents her analysis of field-tested ideas to improve students' comprehension. More ways to use technology effectively as a resource. Not only are there more Technology Links features, but there are many website addresses provided throughout the text. These addresses are accompanied by brief annotations so readers can assess their usefulness. More ways to use technology effectively as a teaching tool. The Companion Website for the second edition (prenhall/tompkins) offers opportunities for self-assessment; analysis, synthesis, and application of concepts; updated web addresses; and special information for teachers required to pass state tests in teaching reading in order to obtain credentials. Much more on assessment tools, including ideas for alternative assessment. Suggestions for the creative use of traditional basal readers, including the "guided reading" approach. A new full-color opener for Part III, featuring a middle school content-area unit on medieval life. What Is the Purpose o f This Textbook?

My goal in this text is to show beginning teachers how to teach reading and writing effectively, how to create a classroom climate where literacy flourishes, and how to empower the diverse array of students in today's classrooms to function competently as literate adults in the twenty-first century. To that end, I have based the text on four contemporary theories of literacy learning: constructivist, interactive, socio-linguistic, and reader response theories.

Readers will learn how to implement a reading program with skills and strategies taught in context using a whole-part-whole organizational approach. The approach I take can, I believe, best be described as "balanced." Literature provides the major focus for reading instruction and for integrating the language arts. You will learn how to teach vital skills and useful strategies within the context of authentic reading and writing experiences. I have carefully selected the principles, skills, strategies, and examples of literature that will empower the beginning teacher to get up to speed quickly. In creating this textbook, I used knowledge I gleaned from a host of teachers who have been students in my beginning reading course over the years, and I also sifted through the array of practices and procedures proven effective in today's classrooms and with today's diverse student populations. Although there are many other useful ideas and strategies that can accomplish the goal of producing literate students, I have deliberately and painstakingly chosen research-based, classroom-tested ideas—the best of the best—as the focus of this textbook.

It is widely recognized that today's teachers need as many approaches and strategies in their repertoire as possible. However, I have carefully culled out a critical path for beginning teachers to follow. Why? Because it is important for beginning teachers of reading and writing to learn a few things well at the outset so that they are prepared to hit the ground running as they confidently implement effective methods. If you know how to be effective from the first day, you will have the confidence necessary to add to your bag of tricks as your experience guides you.

So, could it be argued that there are many more principles for effective teaching of reading and writing than the ten I outline in Chapter 1? Sure. But I am certain that the ten principles I present there will be memorable, useful, helpful, and effective. Does this textbook cover every permutation of every practice option? No. But I am sure that the 38 procedures outlined in detail in the Compendium at the back of the text constitute a memorable, useful, helpful, and effective critical mass of practice options on which you can build.

This textbook is neither an encyclopedia of reading methods nor a comprehensive history of reading. Rather, it is intended as a practical application of knowledge obtained from these encyclopedias and histories and, more important, from the experiences of hundreds of teachers across the country. Not only is the focus on practical application—the reason professors will adopt this book—but that focus is also the reason beginning teachers will keep this book. How Is This Textbook Organized?

This book is organized into four sections. The three chapters in the first section address the question "What is a balanced approach to literacy instruction?" Chapter 1 sets out ten basic instructional principles on which to build balanced literacy instruction. These ten principles describe how effective teachers teach reading and writing. Chapter 2 explains the reading and writing processes that teachers use to teach reading and writing, no matter whether teachers are teaching literature focus units, literature circles, reading and writing workshop, or content area units. Chapter 3 describes both traditional and authentic assessment procedures.

Part II examines the question "How do children learn to read and write?" Chapter 4 is devoted to the special needs of emergent readers and writers (kindergartners and first graders). The basics of the alphabetic principle-phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling—are explained in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 explains word recognition and word identification and how students become fluent readers.

Answering the question "How do readers and writers construct meaning?" is the focus of Chapters 7 and through 9. Chapter 7 is devoted to vocabulary and how students refine their understanding of the meanings of words. Chapter 8 focuses on comprehension—the five comprehension processes, the metacognitive strategies that capable readers use, and comprehension activities during each stage of the reading process. Chapter 9 presents information about the structure of stories, informational books, and poetry. Students use their knowledge of the structure of texts in comprehending what they read.

The five chapters in Part IV answer the question "How do teachers organize literacy instruction?" Chapters on literature focus units, literature circles, reading and writing workshop, basal reading textbooks, and content area units show teachers how to set up their instructional programs based on the reading and writing processes described in Chapter 2. What Are the Special Features?

I have included nine special features to increase the effectiveness of the text and to address the most current resources in the field of literacy.

Principles of Effective Reading Instruction. I set out a list of ten principles of effective reading instruction in Chapter 1, and these principles provide the foundation for the entire textbook. Near the end of each chapter (except Chapter 1), the Review section includes a feature in which I contrast effective and ineffective instructional practices related to the chapter topic. Instructors and students alike will find these features very interesting.

Vignettes. Starting with Chapter 2, I begin each chapter with a vignette in which you will see how a real teacher teaches the topic addressed in the chapter. These vignettes are rich and detailed, with chapter-opener photos, dialogue, student writing samples, and illustrations. Readers will be drawn into the story of literacy instruction in a real classroom as they build background and activate prior knowledge about the chapter's topic. Throughout the chapter, I refer readers to the vignette so that they can apply the concepts they are reading about and make connections to the world of practice.

Website Addresses. Annotated Internet website addresses are listed as margin notes in each chapter. These websites are suggested as resources that readers might use to extend their learning and read the most up-to-date information about guided reading, interactive writing, fluency, comprehension, literature circles, and other literacy topics. Instructors and students are also encouraged to visit Merrill/Prentice Hall's Companion Website at edition prenhall/tompkins.

Technology Links. Readers will learn about innovative uses of technology in teaching reading and writing through the Technology Links. Among the topics I present in these special features are screen reading using captioned text on television to develop reading fluency, electronic dialoguing to write back and forth to a reading buddy to respond to literature, videotape portfolios to document student learning, and interactive electronic books on CD-ROM to teach high-frequency words and phonics skills.

Chapter on the Reading and Writing Processes. In Chapter 2 I describe the reading and writing processes. These two processes provide the foundation for the chapters on how to organize the instructional programs, literature focus units (Chapter 10), literature circles (Chapter 11), reading and writing workshop (Chapter 12), basal reading textbooks (Chapter 13), and thematic units (Chapter 14).

Chapter on Breaking the Code. Chapter 5 focuses on the phonological system: phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling. Phonics is a controversial topic in reading, and the position I take in this chapter is that phonics and related topics are part of a balanced literacy program and are best taught in the context of real literature using a whole-part-whole approach.

Chapter on Fluency. In Chapter 6 I explain that students in the primary grades need to develop strong word recognition skills so that they can automatically, read hundreds and hundreds of words in order to become fluent readers. That is, they can read quickly and with expression by the time they are third graders. Students also need to develop word identification tools, including phonemic and morphological analysis, so that they can decode unfamiliar words as they are reading.

Chapter on Comprehension. Chapter 8 delves into five comprehension processes and how teachers teach and assess each process. I set out 12 strategies that readers and writers use and explain the difference between strategies and skills. To emphasize the importance of helping children become strategic readers, I compare more-capable readers will less-capable readers and writers and conclude that more capable students have both more skills and more strategies, but what really separates the two groups is that more-capable readers are more strategic.

Compendium of Instructional Procedures. For your ready reference, the Compendium at the back of the book provides a comprehensive review of 38 instructional procedures used in literature-based reading classrooms, with step-by-step directions and student samples. The procedures are highlighted when they are mentioned in the text to cue readers to consult the Compendium for more detailed information. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many people helped and encouraged me during the development of this text. My heartfelt thanks go to each of them. First, I want to thank my students at California State University, Fresno, who taught me while I taught them, and the teacher-consultants in the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project, who shared their expertise with me. Their insightful questions challenged and broadened my thinking.

Thanks, too, go to the teachers who welcomed me into their classrooms, showed me how they used literature in innovative ways, and allowed me to learn from them and their students. In particular, I want to express my appreciation to the teachers and students who appear in the vignettes: Eileen Boland, Tenaya Middle School, Fresno, CA; Jessica Bradshaw, Rocky Hill Elementary School, Exeter, CA: Roberta Dillon, Armona Elementary School, Armona, CA: Whitney Donnelly, Williams Ranch School, Penn Valley, CA; Laurie Goodman, Parkview Middle School, Armona, CA; Judy Hoddy, Hennessey School, Grass Valley, CA; Sally Mast, Thomas Elementary School, Fresno, CA; Kristi Ohashi, Terry Elementary School, Selma, CA; Jill Peterson, Mickey Cox Elementary School, Clovis, CA; Judy Roberts, Lincoln Elementary School, Madera, CA; Camilla Simmons, Charles Wright School, Merced, CA, and Darcy Williams, Aynesworth Elementary School, Fresno, CA. Thanks, too, to Sonja Wiens, Leavenworth Elementary School, Fresno, CA; Kimberly Clark, Aynesworth Elementary School, Fresno, CA; Lisa Coronado and Wendy Magill, Lincoln Elementary School, Madera, CA; Bob Dickinson, Williams Ranch School, Penn Valley, CA; Judith Salzberg and Mr. Lee, Charles Wright School, Merced, CA; Kim Ransdell, Armona Elementary School, Armona, CA, and their students also appeared in photos in the book. I also want to acknowledge Jenny Reno and the teachers and students at Western Hills Elementary School, Lawton, OK, and Carol Ochs, Jac...

From the Back Cover:

This popular book is based on four contemporary theories of literacy learning—constructivist, sociolinguistic, interactive, reader response—and promotes a balanced method of teaching reading. It demonstrates how to implement a literature-based reading program using skills and strategies taught with a whole-part-whole approach. Ten significant research-based principles of effective reading instruction are identified and described in the first chapter, and lay the groundwork for building an effective reading program. This potentially overwhelming volume of information on how to teach reading is organized into four, easily understood parts representing “best practice” today—Literature Focus Units, Literature Circles, Reading and Writing Workshop, and effective ways to use commercial reading programs—Basal Readers. Coverage of each approach includes in-depth instruction on how to teach, while practices of both effective and ineffective teachers, at the end of each chapter, make useful and quick self-assessment checkpoints. For reading teachers at the elementary school level.

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