Description
Reading and language arts education continually evolves to meet the ever-increasing demands of life in the twenty-first century. In the years since the publication of the first edition of The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists in 1984, much has changed, yet much remains the same. The goal of this edition, as each one before it, is to be the go-to daily resource for the stuff of targeted, best-practice reading and literacy instruction.
Teachers today are challenged to meet the needs of a broader range of students. There is a greater emphasis on in-class intervention and differentiation as well as a greater emphasis on standardized test results.We find that standards and policies are frequently determined far from the local school and district. And, the pace and impact of technology and globalization have permanently raised the bar on expectations for what all our students need to know and be able to do by the time they leave high school.
What remains the same is the need, day after day, for teachers to engage and support students as they progress from the basics of phoneme-grapheme correspondences needed for reading and writing to more sophisticated and mature literacy skills, such as judging the credibility of information, appreciating author craft, and writing persuasively.
This sixth edition is a significant revision and expansion of The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists. It contains more than fifty completely new lists. Some, such as “Evaluating Online Resources,” respond to the new demands of information literacy; others address topics highlighted in reading and language standards, for example, high-utility academic words. Still others address the need to monitor student progress against learning standards through checklists and rubrics based on the Common Core State Standards. Speaking of standards—a new, easy-to-use matrix identifies by list number support for each of the anchor standards in the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. We invite you to browse the Table of Contents, or better yet, just open the book and poke around. The sixth edition is brimming with important content, engaging activities, and interesting bits for students and teachers in all grades.
One new feature we hope you find helpful is the section brief. Each of the eighteen sections of the book begins with a research update that outlines current theory and instructional practices that have research support. The section briefs provide a research rationale for using the instructional material in the section and include citations for a number of excellent articles suitable for self-directed professional development.
From its earliest days, The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists was meant to be a time-saving, practicefocused resource for teachers, literacy coaches, reading supervisors, teacher educators, and others. We are honored by the more than half a million educators who have brought us into their classrooms and say thank you for all the comments, reviews, and suggestions at conferences, online, and elsewhere. Many helped guide the development of this edition. Thank you also for your contributions to the critically important work of teaching children to read well.
Jacqueline E. Kress
February 14, 2015