Originating in a recent CIERA conference held at the University of Michigan, this book brings together the nation's most distinguished researchers to examine how readers understand text and how comprehension is assessed. The first part provides both national and historical contexts for the study of reading comprehension. The second part examines how vocabulary, motivation, and expertise influence comprehension, and it includes analyses of the developmental course and correlates of comprehension. Chapters in the third part consider how schools focus on comprehension for instruction and assessment. The fourth part includes chapters on large-scale assessment that analyze how test formats and psychometric characteristics influence measures of reading comprehension. At the end of each part is a commentary--written by an expert--that reviews the chapters, critiques the main points, and synthesizes critical issues. Key features of this outstanding new book include: *Integration of Research and Practice--provides a bridge between conceptual issues studied by researchers concerned with reading comprehension theories and practical issues addressed by educators concerned with classroom instruction and assessment. *Comprehension Focus--provides a thorough history and rigorous research-based analyses of reading comprehension. *Assessment Focus--provides innovative approaches to comprehension assessment that include the influences of vocabulary, decoding, and motivation. *Synthetic Commentaries--provides periodic summaries that analyze and synthesize research, practices, and issues discussed in each part. *Expertise--contributing authors and commentators are highly respected authorities on reading comprehension (see table of contents). This text is appropriate for educational and psychological researchers, reading educators, and graduate students in education and psychology. It is part of the CIERA series, which includes the following volumes: Taylor and Pearson: Teaching Reading: Effective Schools, Accomplished Teachers (2002) Van Kleeck, Stahl, and Bauer: On Reading Books to Children: Parents and Teachers (2003) Hoffman and Schallert: The Texts in Elementary Classrooms (2005)

Learning new words is foundational to success in school and life. Researchers have known for years that how many word meanings a student knows is one of the strongest predictors of how well that student will understand text and be able to communicate through writing. This book is about how children learn the meanings of new words (and the concepts they convey) and how teachers can be strategic in deciding which words to teach, how to teach them, and which words not to teach at all.
This book offers a comprehensive approach to vocabulary instruction. It offers not just practical classroom activities for teaching words (though plenty of those are included), but ways that teachers can make the entire curriculum more effective at promoting students' vocabulary growth. It covers the 'why to' and 'when to' as well as the 'how to' of teaching word meanings.
Key features of this exciting new book include:
*A variety of vocabulary activities. Activities for teaching different kinds of words such as high frequency words, high utility words, and new concepts, are explained and illustrated.
*Guidelines for choosing words. A chart provides a simple framework built around seven basic categories of words that helps teachers decide which words to teach and how to teach them.
*Word learning strategies. Strategies are offered that will help students use context, word parts, and dictionaries more effectively.
*Developing Word Consciousness. Although specific vocabulary instruction is fully covered, the primary goal of this book is to develop students' independent interest in words and their motivation to learn them.
*Integrated Vocabulary Instruction. Teachers are encouraged toimprove the reading vocabularies of their students by looking for opportunities to integrate vocabulary learning into activities that are undertaken for other purposes.

Originating in a recent CIERA conference held at the University of Michigan, this book brings together the nation's most distinguished researchers to examine how readers understand text and how comprehension is assessed. The first part provides both national and historical contexts for the study of reading comprehension. The second part examines how vocabulary, motivation, and expertise influence comprehension, and it includes analyses of the developmental course and correlates of comprehension. Chapters in the third part consider how schools focus on comprehension for instruction and assessment. The fourth part includes chapters on large-scale assessment that analyze how test formats and psychometric characteristics influence measures of reading comprehension. At the end of each part is a commentary--written by an expert--that reviews the chapters, critiques the main points, and synthesizes critical issues. Key features of this outstanding new book include: *Integration of Research and Practice--provides a bridge between conceptual issues studied by researchers concerned with reading comprehension theories and practical issues addressed by educators concerned with classroom instruction and assessment. *Comprehension Focus--provides a thorough history and rigorous research-based analyses of reading comprehension. *Assessment Focus--provides innovative approaches to comprehension assessment that include the influences of vocabulary, decoding, and motivation. *Synthetic Commentaries--provides periodic summaries that analyze and synthesize research, practices, and issues discussed in each part. *Expertise--contributing authors and commentators are highly respected authorities on reading comprehension (see table of contents). This text is appropriate for educational and psychological researchers, reading educators, and graduate students in education and psychology. It is part of the CIERA series, which includes the following volumes: Taylor and Pearson: Teaching Reading: Effective Schools, Accomplished Teachers (2002) Van Kleeck, Stahl, and Bauer: On Reading Books to Children: Parents and Teachers (2003) Hoffman and Schallert: The Texts in Elementary Classrooms (2005)

"On Reading Books to Children: Parents and Teachers" brings together in one volume current research on adult book reading to children. The authors, drawn from around the world, are key researchers and eminent scholars from the fields of reading and literacy, child language, speech pathology, and psychology, representing multiple perspectives within these disciplines.
Chapters on the effects and limitations of book sharing are integrated with chapters discussing promising programs on storybook research. The reality of reading to children is more complex than it appears on the surface. The authors discuss some effects of and suggestions for reading to children that have emerged from the research. The ideas set forth in this volume will stimulate new lines of research on the effects of storybook reading, as well as refinements of current methods, yielding findings that enrich our understanding of this important arena of literacy development.

This book started with a simple idea -- examine models of reading instruction that have emerged during the past 20 years. These models span a wide range of instruction representing a continuum from highly structured, task analytic instruction to child-centered and holistic instruction. Each model has its own epistemology or views on how reading and instruction are to be defined. The different epistemologies indicate different principles of instruction which, in turn, indicate different practices in the classroom. Each model is also supported by a different research base. In this volume, leading proponents of these different models discuss their ideas about reading instruction thereby encouraging readers to make their own comparisons and contrasts.
The chapter authors seem to adopt the editors' eclectic approach--to some greater or lesser extent--incorporating aspects of other models into their instruction as they see other goals. Thus, models of reading instruction are complex. Complicating matters further is the fact that teachers hold their own models of reading, which may or may not be congruent with those discussed here. Although academically developed models influence college preservice and in-service instruction, teachers' own models of reading filter the information that they take from what they learn from these perspectives. By carefully examining these variables, this book makes a firm contribution toward disciplined inquiry into what it means to teach reading.

This book started with a simple idea -- examine models of reading instruction that have emerged during the past 20 years. These models span a wide range of instruction representing a continuum from highly structured, task analytic instruction to child-centered and holistic instruction. Each model has its own epistemology or views on how "reading" and "instruction" are to be defined. The different epistemologies indicate different principles of instruction which, in turn, indicate different practices in the classroom. Each model is also supported by a different research base. In this volume, leading proponents of these different models discuss their ideas about reading instruction thereby encouraging readers to make their own comparisons and contrasts.
The chapter authors seem to adopt the editors' eclectic approach--to some greater or lesser extent--incorporating aspects of other models into their instruction as they see other goals. Thus, models of reading instruction are complex. Complicating matters further is the fact that teachers hold their own models of reading, which may or may not be congruent with those discussed here. Although academically developed models influence college preservice and in-service instruction, teachers' own models of reading filter the information that they take from what they learn from these perspectives. By carefully examining these variables, this book makes a firm contribution toward disciplined inquiry into what it means to teach reading.