What Research Really Says about Teaching and Learning to Read

Editor(s): Stephen B. Kucer

This groundbreaking collection examines “official” views of the teaching and learning of  reading—those endorsed by the National Reading Panel, No Child Left Behind, and Reading First initiatives—and challenges the assumptions on which the views are based.

Together, the contributors offer an alternate vision to currently accepted ideas and practices in reading education. What Research Really Says about Teaching and Learning to Read provides historical context for the current reading debates and then examines forms of resistance to existing policies. The contributors, with support of NCTE’s Commission on Reading, synthesize a broad range of research concerning the nature of reading, how it is learned, and its development across the grades. They examine specific curricular and instructional strategies for reading development in children and adolescents. They also offer a powerful decision-making matrix to help evaluate reading curricula as well as a research-based collection of best practices.

Recognizing that classrooms are becoming more ethnically, racially, and linguistically diverse, this pioneering book addresses the needs of multilingual students and of readers who struggle under current national reading policies. The contributors highlight the transformative power of professional development and celebrate success stories in the era of No Child Left Behind and Reading First.

350 pp. 2008. Grades Pre-K–12. ISBN 978-0-8141-5675-9.

ISBN: 978-0-8141-5675-9

Grade Level(s): Elementary, Middle, Secondary