Reading Success for Struggling Adolescent Learners (Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy)

Comprehensive, up to date, and highly practical, this volume discusses factors that affect struggling readers in grades 7-12 and provides research-based strategies for improving their reading and writing skills. Chapters from leading authorities examine why some adolescents have trouble achieving reading proficiency, describe schoolwide policies and programs that support literacy, and suggest age-appropriate classroom practices for promoting reading success. The book shows how literacy skills and strategies can be incorporated into instruction in all areas of the curriculum. Essential topics include assessment; building core competencies, such as fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary; and working with struggling adolescent English language learners. Children's Literature For various reasons, many students reach middle and high school with reading abilities well below what is needed to succeed academically. While many students can succeed at non-academic reading, reading for academic achievement seems to be a challenge for some. One of the foremost reasons for lack of reading achievement is that reading instruction, per se, stops, traditionally, at the elementary level. For struggling readers, whose abilities are not proficient enough for them to read at a depth necessary for academic learning, (this level may be as high as 71% for eighth graders). The editors of this book have gathered 21 noted authors from the field of adolescent literacy to address the challenges in this area. Their strategies are divided into four parts: Understanding Struggling Adolescent Readers, Organizing Classroom Contexts That Promote Literacy, Implementing Classroom Instruction for Struggling Adolescent Readers and Developing Schoolwide Context to Support Achievement. Everything from adolescent development to classroom strategies to creating positive attitudes is discussed. There is something here for every secondary teacher, although a schoolwide approach would be ideal. As the diversity of students and their needs increases, addressing the challenges to achievement for all students suggests a change in strategies. This book is an excellent spark to get the dialogue going. Reviewer: Meredith Kiger, Ph.D. This volume discusses factors that affect struggling readers in grades 7-12 and provides research-based strategies for improving their reading and writing skills. Chapters examine why some adolescents have trouble achieving reading proficiency, describe school-wide policies and programs that support literacy, and suggest age-appropriate classroom practices for promoting reading success. The book shows how literacy skills and strategies can be incorporated into instruction in all areas of the curriculum. Essential topics include assessment; building core competencies, such as fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary; and working with struggling adolescent English language learners. The book is designed for use by middle and high school teachers, literacy coaches, reading specialists and teacher educators, and may also serve as a text in advanced undergraduate or graduate-level courses in adolescent literacy. Following an introduction by the editors, 16 chapters are divided across four topics. Part I, Understanding Struggling Adolescent Readers, includes: (1) What Do We Know about the Adolescent Learner and What Does It Mean for Literacy Instruction? (Jill Lewis and Avivah Dahbany); (2) Struggling Adolescent Readers: Problems and Possibilities (Susan Lenski); (3) Nurturing Resilience among Adolescent Readers (Alfred W. Tatum and Teresa A. Fisher); and (4) Teaching Adolescent English Language Learners (Fabiola P. Ehlers-Zavala). Part II, Organizing Classroom Contexts That Promote Literacy, contains: (5) The Role of Technology in Supporting Struggling Readers (Dana Grisham and Thomas DeVere Wolsey); (6) Engaging Struggling Adolescent Readers in Conversations about Texts: Instructional Strategies for Successful Experiences (Kathleen Crawford-McKinney and Kattie Hogan); and (7) Making Time for Independent Reading (Susan Lenski and Erexenia Lanier). Part III, Implementing Classroom Instruction for Struggling Adolescent Readers, includes: (8) Fluency Strategies for Struggling Adolescent Readers (Gay Fawcett and Timothy Rasinski); (9) Comprehension Strategies that Make a Difference for Struggling Readers (Micki M. Caskey); (10) Vocabulary Strategies for Struggling Readers (Margaret Ann Richek and Becky McTague); (11) Classroom Instruction for Struggling Writers (Leif Fearn and Nancy Farnan); and (12) Teaching from a Critical Literacy Perspective and Encouraging Social Action (Susan Lenski). The book concludes with Part IV, Developing Schoolwide Contexts to Support Achievement: (13) Meaningful Assessment of Struggling Adolescent Readers (Peter Afflerbach); (14) Literacy Coaching at the Middle School/High School Levels (Rita Bean); (15) Keeping Parents Involved in Their Children's Education during the Middle and High School Years (Laurie Elish-Piper); and (16) "But I'm Not Going to College!": Developing Adolescents' Literacy for the 21st-Century Workplace (Jill Lewis). An index is included From the Publisher: Comprehensive, up to date, and highly practical, this volume discusses factors that affect struggling readers in grades 7-12 and provides research-based strategies for improving their reading and writing skills. Chapters from leading authorities examine why some adolescents have trouble achieving reading proficiency, describe schoolwide policies and programs that support literacy, and suggest age-appropriate classroom practices for promoting reading success. The book shows how literacy skills and strategies can be incorporated into instruction in all areas of the curriculum. Essential topics include assessment; building core competencies, such as fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary; and working with struggling adolescent English language learners