What Your Colleagues Are Saying …
“The power of intriguing texts, purposeful reading, and development of independence in reading are the keystones of this book. Teachers will find guidance on how to snag the interest of middle school students with content texts especially written by David Harrison and woven into compelling lessons by Laura Robb. The authors provide teachers with a powerhouse of lessons that nudge students along in becoming independent readers who can infer, summarize, discern cause and effect, and much more. Not only will students gain skill in reading, but they will also have multiple opportunities to write, discuss, and broaden their vocabulary. An outstanding resource!”
—Mary Jo Fresch, PhD, professor emeritus at the College of Education and Human Ecology, The Ohio State University
“This book shows teachers how to apprentice developing readers into knowing and doing the secret things that expert readers know and do. Laura Robb and David L. Harrison have nailed the very core of the kind of cognitive apprenticeship that transforms student engagement and capacity: provide guided practice into the use of new stances and strategies (in ways tailored to meet the needs of the whole class, small groups, and individuals), and then move to deliberate independent practice that consolidates, extends, and explores these moves of expert readers.”
—Jeffrey Wilhelm, author of Planning Powerful Instruction and Diving Deep Into Nonfiction
“With special consideration on our students who are developing as proficient readers, this book unpacks an essential step in skilled teaching—the guided practice component. So often, we leapfrog from modeling to independent practice; Laura Robb and David L. Harrison’s thoughtful inquiry into guided practice helps us understand the power and promise of guided practice, the essential components of guided practice, and model lessons to enact guided practice.”
—Molly Ness, PhD, author of Think Big With Think Alouds and Every Minute Matters
“Laura Robb and David Harrison’s new book is a great practical guide to help teachers provide more effective reading instruction!”
—Larry Ferlazzo, high school teacher, author, and Education Week columnist
“In Guided Practice for Reading Growth teacher expertise is valued, empathy for developing readers is in the forefront, and a system for guided practice comes to life with lessons and examples to try right away. Laura Robb and David L. Harrison have brought us a professional resource to help with the important steps between modeling and independent practice so that all students can experience growth and confidence.”
—Gravity Goldberg, author of Teach Like Yourself and What Do I Teach Readers Tomorrow?
“I loved teaching the guided practice lessons because it was easy to make them work for my students. Teachers with little experience and teachers like me, with thirty years experience, will find the lessons easy to present because each one is organized with clear directions and choices. My students loved learning about poetic devices, different kinds of poetry, and they understood figurative language because David Harrison is a master at weaving it into his poems. I loved having the purpose up front as it clarified my thinking. All of my students thoroughly enjoyed building their background knowledge with the recommended videos—this is such a great idea for developing readers!”
—Stacey Yost, fifth grade inclusion teacher, Winchester, VA
“The lessons included everything I needed to improve students’ reading and vocabulary and to engage them in thinking about the poems and short texts. All my students were motivated to read the texts, especially after watching the video. The skills aligned with our state standards, and students learned so much about figurative language and different kinds of poems. I loved that the questions students discussed were always high level and nudged students to think deeply. The repeated readings woven into the lessons were a boost to students’ fluency. Spacing the lessons over three days allowed students to absorb information and increased their motivation to complete them.”
—Bridget Wilson, fifth-grade inclusion teacher in Winchester, VA
“My ESOL students appreciated the cold writing I did in my notebook because it gave them a model to study, discuss, and learn from. I loved that Laura Robb encourages teachers to have students draw to show their understanding of vocabulary and interpretive questions. The writing supports the visualizing students do while reading, and they loved the active learning—the students did the work and they improved with citing text evidence to support a position, enlarged their vocabulary, and were able to self-evaluate to show how and why their reading improved. The more they wrote and discussed, the greater their insights and critical thinking.”
—Wanda Waters, ESOL teacher in Winchester, VA
For my granddaughter, Helena, with love and thanks for all she has taught me about developing readers.—LR
To struggling readers, on the day they hold the first book they ever read by themselves, and can say, “I did it!”—DLH
Guided Practice for Reading Growth, Grades 4-8
Texts and Lessons to Improve Fluency, Comprehension, and Vocabulary
resources.corwin.com/guidedpractice
Laura Robb
David L. Harrison
Foreword by
Timothy Rasinski
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