These days, it seems that everyone has a strong opinion about how to teach young children to read. Some may brush off the current tension as nothing more than one more round of ""the reading wars."" Others may avoid the clash altogether due to the uncivilized discourse that sometimes results. Certainly, sorting the signal from the noise is no easy task.In this leading-edge book, authors Jan Burkins and Kari Yates address this tension as a critical opportunity to look closely at the research, reevaluate current practices, and embrace new possibilities for an even stronger enactment of balanced literacy. From phonological processing to brain research to orthographic mapping to self-teaching hypothesis, Shifting the Balance cuts through the rhetoric (and the sciencey science) to offer readers a practical guide to decision-making about beginning reading instruction. The authors honor the balanced literacy perspective while highlighting common practices to reconsider and revise - all through a lens of what's best for the students sitting in front of us.   Across six shifts, each chapter identifies a common instructional practice to reconsider explores various misunderstandings that establish and keep that practice in play shares scientific research to support its reconsideration proposes an instructional shift to apply a new perspective, and details several high-leverage instructional routines to support implementation of that shift. By pinpointing gaps and overlaps - as well as common misunderstandings and missed opportunities between the competing lines of thought - Jan and Kari offer busy educators direction and clarification for integrating science and balance into their daily instruction, while keeping meaningful experiences with text a priority.

In this much anticipated follow-up to their groundbreaking book, Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom, authors Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, together with co-author Katie Cunningham, extend the conversation in Shifting the Balance 3-5: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom. This new text is built in mind specifically for grades 3-5 teachers around best practices for the intermediate classroom.  Shifting the Balance 3-5 introduces six more shifts across individual chapters that: Zoom in on a common (but not-as helpful-as-we-had-hoped) practice to reconsider Untangle a number of ""misunderstandings"" that have likely contributed to the use of the common practice Propose a more science-aligned shift to the current practice Provide solid scientific research to support the revised practice Offer a collection of high-leverage, easy-to-implement instructional routines to support the shift to more brain-friendly instruction The authors offer a refreshing approach that is respectful, accessible, and practical – grounded in an earnest commitment to building a bridge between research and classroom practice. As with the first Shifting the Balance, they aim to keep students at the forefront of reading instruction.

In their follow-up to `Reading Wellness, Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris explore how some traditional scaffolding practices may actually rob students of important learning opportunities and independence. `Who's Doing the Work? suggests ways to make small but powerful adjustments to instruction that hold students accountable for their own learning.~~Educators everywhere are concerned about students whose reading development inexplicably plateaus, as well as those who face challenging texts without applying the strategies they've been taught. When such problems arise, our instinct is to do more. But when we summarize text before reading or guide students when they encounter difficult words, are we leading them to depend on our support? If we want students to use strategies independently, Jan and Kim believe that we must question the ways our scaffolding is getting in the way.~~Next generation reading instruction is responsive to students' needs, and it develops readers who can integrate reading strategies without prompting from instructors. In `Who's Doing The Work?, Jan and Kim examine how instructional mainstays such as read-aloud, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading look in classrooms where students do more of the work. Classroom snapshots at the end of each chapter help translate the ideas in the book into practice.~~`Who's Doing the Work? offers a vision for adjusting reading instruction to better align with the goal of creating independent, proficient, and joyful readers.

Feeling exhausted after guided reading? Are you working tirelessly while your students aren't even breaking a sweat? Do you ever wonder if other teachers feels the same way you do about guided reading-that it's not working the way you think it should? You are not alone. There seems to be much confusion surrounding guided reading-the term even means something different from school to school. Now you can turn to the 50 years of collective experience of authors Jan Burkins and Melody Croft to prevent guided reading from going astray in your classroom. Jan and Melody present personal clarifications, adaptations, and supports that have helped them work through their own tricky parts as they guide readers. The book's six chapters each clarify a misunderstanding about guided reading instruction in the following areas: The teacher's role and the gradual release of responsibility Instructional reading level Text gradients Balanced instruction Integrated processing Assessment With 27 strategies, you're sure to find the help you need to work through your own challenges as you guide groups of readers.