Developing Competent Readers And Writers In The Middle Grades

Grade level: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, p, e, i, s, t.

The second edition of this popular book for grades 4-8 again reflects the author's emphasis on teaching reading and writing from a literature-based perspective and engaging middle-grades learners in integrated literacy experiences. Coverage has been revised to meet the growing need to address early adolescents who still struggle with becoming proficient readers and writers. Taking a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to literacy development, Combs deftly balances ideas for using authentic children's literature with techniques for making the most of the basal approach—providing a rich mix of classroom-tested models and examples that will serve future teachers well in their first classrooms, and every classroom thereafter. For future and practice elementary school reading teachers.

This major new entry is a core text for the growing number of reading/literacy methods courses which cover grades K through four. The text emphasizes literature-based reading, but also discusses the appropriate use of phonics instruction in helping children to become literate.

This book focuses on practical, research-based approaches middle-grade teachers can use to help their students hone their reading abilities, learn from what they read, and become increasingly motivated to read and competent in responding to the sophisticated narrative and expository texts they encounter in the middle grades and beyond. The authors, one a leading scholar in children's and adolescent literature and the other a leading scholar in reading education, emphasize the relevance of giving equal attention to both cognitive and affective factors. Through a clear and friendly writing style Lee Galda and Mike Graves carefully analyze and describe the unique characteristics of middle-grade students and their learning, give equal attention to the cognitive-constructivist view of reading familiar to reading educators and the transactional theory and reader response theory familiar to literary scholars. This book is unique in that it encompasses learning to read (comprehension), reading to learn (across the curriculum), and adolescent literature and response. While these areas are entirely compatible, they are not often combined. Major topics, each of which is treated in a chapter, include the middle school learner, motivation and engagement, literature for adolescents, scaffolding students' comprehension, teaching comprehension and study strategies, teaching literature, higher-order thinking and deep understanding, vocabulary instruction, assessment, and classroom organization. Glowing Reviews! "I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. My knowledge base was definitely broadened and I found much merit and much to commend. In fact, I made notes in the margins filled with such statements as "easy to read," "terrific idea," and "important insight." �--Maria Ceprano, Buffalo State College "The inclusion of ELL issues in the deliberations about teaching are quite useful and appropriate. This book does an excellent job describing ELL students' instructional needs and offering alternative or modified instructional approaches." --Kurtis S. Meredith-University of Northern Iowa. Meet the Authors Lee Galda is Professor of Children's and Adolescent Literature at the University of Minnesota. Her research and development interests focus on literature and its role in motivation and engagement, and reader response. Her recent books include Literature and the Child (6th edition), with Bernice Cullinan, and Language Arts: Learning and Teaching , with Dorothy Strickland and Bernice Cullinan, both published by Wadsworth/Thomson. Michael F. Graves is Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Minnesota. His research and development efforts focus on comprehension instruction and vocabulary learning and instruction. His recent books include Teaching Reading in the 21st Century (4th edition in press, with Connie Juel and Bonnie Graves, Allyn & Bacon) and The Vocabulary Book (2006, Teachers College Press, IRA, and NCTE).

Unlike any other text, Teaching Reading in the Middle Grades provides a balanced readable analysis of recent documents developed by professional organizations, researchers, and government agencies, including the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Reading Association, and the National Reading Panel. With its careful balance of the different dimensions presented in current research outlining that the teacher, not only the method, is a crucial factor in student achievement, this text helps students grasp the scope and complexity of student achievement in Literacy.

The basic assumption of this book is that reading and writing in school should be natural and enjoyable for children, and its ideas are based on the Piagetian theory that knowledge is constructed by each individual and the psycholinguistic view that learning takes place best when viewed as holistic and when instructional materials for children are authentic and purposeful. The book describes the constructive nature of children's thinking, reading, and writing, and the natural development of these processes. Chapter 1 discusses a model of literacy learning and the role of teachers in creating sound literacy programs for their pupils. Chapters 2 and 3 present instructional ideas that support the literacy development of middle grade students. Chapter two centers on developing readers; some of the topics covered include reading aloud, literature sets, reading conferences, book talks, strategy lessons, and reading journals and logs. Chapter 3 focuses on developing writers and discusses various aspects of the writing workshop, writing outside the workshop, and assessment of writing--only those ideas which are consistent with a whole language view of literacy development have been included. Chapter 4 comments on specific questions about the whole language approach to reading and writing. Appendixes list publishers of students' writing, selected favorite books, selected poetry collections, and some discourse forms for content writing. A 19-item annotated bibliography and 27 references are attached. (MG)