Customer Reviews (1)

Kills 2 birds with one stone
This workbook is a collection of random articles related to politics, society, and history.Chosen specifically for their fun factor, this is a good way to introduce children to nonfiction reading.For each story, there is a vocabulary page (with no definitions), and a fill-in-the-bubble test.This is a good way to test your child's reading comprehension while keeping them from getting bored by nonfiction subject matter, AND they'll learn some history and fun facts, too.

I was satisfied with the purchase.I'd recommend it for in-school enrichment and homeschooling. ... Read more

Product Description
The goal of reading instruction is to help learners become active, critical readers with skills and dispositions to understand a range of text types. Here, in one convenient collection, you'll find outstanding articles grounded in research and full of instructional suggestions to help you meet this goal.

Compiled and introduced by noted experts Diane Lapp and Douglas Fisher, the book opens with their overview of comprehension research. The 15 articles included in the collection, written by leaders in comprehension research and practice and drawn from IRA journals, are grouped to address these questions:

-How important is background knowledge?
-What cognitive strategies do readers use to support their comprehension?
-What instructional routines can teachers use to support comprehension instruction?
-What might the future hold for comprehension instruction?

Each article is supplemented with Questions for Reflection, and recommendations for additional resources from further readings to online lesson plans to YouTube videos are included.

This book is ideal for use in teacher education or for group or individual professional development. The cornerstone of the IRA Library: Comprehension collection, it can be purchased alone or as part of that cost-saving package.

The International Reading Association is the world's premier organization of literacy professionals. Our titles promote reading by providing professional development to continuously advance the quality of literacy instruction and research.

Research-based, classroom-tested, and peer-reviewed, IRA titles are among the highest quality tools that help literacy professionals do their jobs better.

Some of the many areas we publish in include:

-Comprehension
-Response To Intervention/Struggling Readers
-Early Literacy
-Adolescent Literacy
-Assessment
-Literacy Coaching
-Research And Policy ... Read more

Product Description
It's simple: If children don't understand what they read, they will never embrace reading.And that limits what they can learn while in school.This fact frightens parents, worries teachers, and ultimately hurts children.

7 Keys to Comprehension is the result of cutting-edge research.It gives parents and teachers—those who aren't already using this valuable program—practical, thoughtful advice about the seven simple thinking strategies that proficient readers use:

• Connecting reading to their background knowledge
• Creating sensory images
• Asking questions
• Drawing inferences
• Determining what's important
• Synthesizing ideas
• Solving problems

Easily understood, easily applied, and proven successful, this essential educational tool helps parents and teachers to turn reading into a fun and rewarding adventure. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Good resource!
This book has concise overviews of the various compehendion strategies.It also gives text ideas to accompany the strategies.

The inlightning book for teachers
A book give the teachers a clear picture which how to teach english reading. this simple guide uses beautiful language and sample to illustrate the reasonable 7keys.

7 Keys to Comprehension
What a great book for teachers, parents, anyone interested in starting the process of reading comprehension in children. Easy read -- enjoyable -- informative.

Very helpful
This book is well thought out, has good examples, and can help teachers and parents to make reading meaningful to children

mom
Book did not give alot of guidance as to specific tasks that can be done to assist your child in comprehending; however it did provide good insight on how my child does process the material that she reads. ... Read more

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This highly practical collection of more than 130 strategies and 90 reproducibles is the perfect resource for any teacher attempting to evoke high-quality responses to literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Revisit,Reflect, Retell: Strategies for improving reading comprehension
Fantastic, helpful book. It includes many wonderful ideas for improving my students retention and comprehension of reading materials. The book containsmany graphic organizers that are clever, up-to date and adaptable to any grade level or ability. Some of the instructions on the use of the graphic organizers are vague, however, they can be self explanatory once looked over. I would and will recommend this book to my fellow teachers, as I recommend it to potential buyers.

A must have for any teacher
This book is an easy supplement to any Language Arts lesson.Linda Hoyt describes each activity in a very no nonsense way.She tells you exactly how to use a lesson, the objective and provides a template.Why invent the wheel when you have a book like this?I keep it on my desk at all times!

WOW! WOnderful!!
I went to Linda's workshop that went along with this book and I left with more ideas than I have ever gotten in any workshop or college course!! This book is a must have for any elementary teacher, elem. student parent, any Special ed teacher or ESL teacher. I keep the book and my notes right next to my lesson plans. The ideas for reading comprehension are so creative and a wonderful escape for learning from pencil and paper questions.

Very useful!
Unlike other books that just give you graphic organizers without the reason or strategy behind it, this book shows how and why to use the great reproducibles. She also tells how teachers should initiate a retelling or get kids to revisit the text. Her techniques are much like what I learned in my literature-based course but she gives a simple format to use instead of me having to think of my own. These reproducibles can be done with any age and are great to use where certain children have weaknesses. I highly recommend this book! This is not a book that will be stuck in a shelf!I have many great resource books that are almost a necessity but for a majority of the time I never touch them. I have used this book time and time again with great success!

Wow!What an amazing and easy to use tool for teachers!
This book contains an incredible amount of useful information and ready to use strategy sheets for students. Includes wonderful pre, during, and post reading strategies to help students with their comprehension.Alsoincludes great student self-assessment sheets.Extremely easy to use forteachers!Highly recommended! ... Read more

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This popular series offers nonfiction reading passages with comprehension questions on a variety of subjects for students in second grade through junior high school and beyond. Topics and questions pr ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Great Helper
I bought this to help some of my students who are a little behind in their learning.Students are being required to think more critically and solve problems.It's hard to do that when you don't fully understand text and can't pick up on context clues.This book gives many short paragraphs for students to read with highlighted words in the story.Then there are a few questions to help students figure out higher level vocabulary within the text.Great to help build vocabulary and enhance comprehension. ... Read more

Product Description
Motivate reluctant readers with this collection of easy-to-read passages that cover a wide range of high-interest topics. Grouped according to the key reading strategies they reinforce, each reproducible passage comes with test-formatted comprehension and vocabulary questions, as well as writing activities. A great supplement to your reading program! For use with Grades 6–8. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Lawrance, K.
Was purchased as a gift, but was shiped to me first and I am pleased with seller and product.

Well worth the investment!
I teach students in grades 6-8 who are struggling in reading.These articles are a perfect one day lesson to teach a reading skill.The book is organized by strategy:main idea, inference, sequencing, using context clues, etc. and then by reading level with increasing difficulty to reinforce the skill and stretch the student's reading skills.I often will use the lowest readability article to introduce the topic and work up in difficulty.It also allows for independent work on same strategy but at differnt levels.

The articles are interesting to students and look like anything else their friends may have as classwork or homework.If I could only have access to a handful of teachng resource books, this is one I wouldn't part with.I wish they would come out with a Volume 2!

I would also recommend the same book but for grades 2-3 with readability levels beginning at 1st grade to reach your lowest readers.

Great for a self contained special education classroom
I teach a self contained class of of 12 readers with reading levels ranging from kindergarden to 7th grade.This book is an amazing resource for independent work.It provides skill based readings for all but my lowest and highest readers.The layout and images are fantastic and mature and thus, don't make my middle school students feel as if they are doing "baby" work.I recommend this highly and hope they develop a similar book with fiction passages for character analysis and other story element skills.

sgharvey
This book is a good way to peek interest in reading with a variety of topics. My son finds many of these short stories interestingand the questions are logical. It is a good way to work on comprehension and reading skills. I plan on using this book for the summer with my son to help with recoupment.

Great Skills and Activities
As a teacher I'm always looking for supplemented activities, to reinforce language arts skills.This book not only has helped my students with reinforcing comprehension skills but has also given them great activities that not only follow up with what has been read but also personalizes the reading of the passages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

great transaction
received in a timely manner and in good condition! thanks for the smooth transaction :)

Engaging
Great book for teachers or parents reinforcing reading strategies/skills.The stories are highly engaging and educational.They are all mysteries involving the dog and most children enjoy reading these short clips. ... Read more

Product Description
Includes everything students need to conquer the Critical Reading section of the exam with:

• In-depth coverage of the SAT Critical Reading section
• Hundreds of targeted practice questions with detailed answer explanations covering every category of the SAT Critical Reading section, including reading comprehension, sentence completion, long and short reading passages
• chapter on SAT vocabulary with a glossary of frequently tested words
• 2 realistic Critical Reading tests
• Effective score-raising tips and strategies

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Test Prep Resource
I'm currently a junior in high school, and I found this book to be an excellent resource while I prepared for my PSAT's and, this year, for my SAT's. My sophomore year PSAT Critical Reading score was a 63, significantly lower than my scores in the other two sections. Determined to bring up my score, I bought this book in the hopes of achieving my goal. Needless to say, I was not disappointed! I found the tips at the beginning to be extremely helpful, and I especially liked the fact that the entire book was broken down into different sections - sentence completions, short passage readings, and long passage readings - so I could easily identify and target my weaknesses. The list of root words at the end was also very beneficial, and when comparing that strategy to what most of my friends do (memorizing hundreds of vocabulary words), it was much more effective and helped me save a lot of time. Overall, I found the format of the book quite reader-friendly. Doing the exercises from this book and learning from my mistakes also allowed me to form new strategies for the next time I took a standardized test.

Two weeks ago, a large envelope from my school showed up in my mailbox. It contained my junior year PSAT scores. To my delight, I found that I had scored a 72 on the Critical Reading section of this year's PSAT - a nine point improvement from last year - enabling me to qualify for National Merit Semifinalist status in my state by a wide margin! I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with this section - thanks to it, I now consider Critical Reading to be the easiest section on the whole SAT.

A Good, But Not Great Book
This Kaplan Critical Reading Book, has a lot of good practice exericses and separates questions into the categories of sentence completion, short passage, and long passage.This enables you to target your weaknesses.The book also contains great root and vocabulary lists.However, my main criticism of this book is the practice tests.The tests in this book are good, but the format is not the same as the real SAT.On the real SAT, all three reading sections contain sentence completions, but in this book only two of the sections have sentence completions.Also, in the final section of the test, a long passage comes before a short passage.This does not happen either on the SAT.The difficulty of the questions is also different than on the real SAT.On this book the questions seem a bit easier.Also, there are countless questions where two answers seem reasonable.This happens on the real SAT, but not nearly as much as it does in the Kaplan book.However, overall this is a good book to prepare you for the SAT reading, but there is bound to be a better book out there. ... Read more

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An effective resource for improving young students' comprehension skills

With 100 high-interest reading activities, this book is designed to help students gain fundamental comprehension skills so they can succeed in reading complex and varied types of texts. Each lesson includes a brief reading selection followed by questions, multiple-choice selections, and thinking and writing activities. The activities, all on reproducible worksheets, can be used to give individual students or groups extra practice, or as supplemental skill-building and test-prep activities for the full class.

• Activities are grouped within seven units, each focusing on an important aspect of comprehension
• Units increase in difficulty level so that students gain proficiency as they work through the material
• High-interest themes include stories about robots, animal helpers, space, and famous people
• Offers activities that build the advanced cognitive skills called for in the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP)

Each lesson includes a teacher section with guidance on how to introduce the activities to students and support them in their reading practices. ... Read more

Product Description

Integration occurs when separate parts or elements are combined into a unified whole. A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension focuses on classroom arts integration- equally incorporating skills in drama and reading comprehension into all lessons. Drama and reading comprehension share a multitude of authentic connections, including meaning making and interpretation. Each subject complements the other, leading, ideally, to increased abilities in both. A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension explains the what, how, and why of effective classroom drama as well as how drama increases students' reading comprehension skills.

Lenore Blank Kelner and Rosalind Flynn make what is implicit to experienced educational drama specialists explicit for classroom teachers. A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension is designed for teachers with little to no experience in drama. It contains information, advice, directions, steps, tips, charts, lists, photos, and ideas for use with students in grades one through eight. Readers will find in-depth explanations of the layers of effective educational drama experiences based on classroom texts. Kelner and Flynn devote individual chapters to each of four drama strategies-story dramatization, character interviews, tableau, and human slide shows-with a step-by-step process for integration of the drama strategy and reading comprehension.

In addition, A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension includes a comprehensive treatment of assessment in both drama and reading comprehension. Readers will find a variety of assessment guidelines, tasks, tools, and definitions of terms.

Product Description

Now you can easily deliver the shared reading comprehension lessons you need to launch RTI Tier 1 instruction setting the stage for Tier 1 small-group instruction as well as Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions.

Launching RTI Comprehension Instruction with Shared Reading provides intermediate-grade teachers with:

* Flexible shared reading plans for 45-, 60-, and 90-minute instructional blocks and guidelines to implement Tier 2 and Tier 3 comprehension interventions;
* Criteria to select comprehension objectives, choose texts, and create lessons that support students before, during, and after reading;
* Strategies that move students toward independence in meeting comprehension objectives through explicit, systematic instruction that culminates in written response;
* Assessment rubrics, checklists, and anchor sets to evaluate students literature responses;
* Lessons and support materials for 40 different objectives organized into four thinking strands: forming a general understanding, developing an interpretation, making reader/text connections, and examining content and structure; and
* Independent follow-up activities in oral language, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing that help students apply what they have learned in the shared lesson.

Tips for adapting instruction to English language learners and reflection questions at the end of each chapter round out this complete resource. The included CD provides modifiable electronic versions of planning and support documents, along with additional lesson materials not included in the book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Making Life Easy for Intermediate Teachers
All of Nancy Boyles' books are excellent, but her new book, Launching RTI Comprehension Instruction with Shared Reading, is fabulous!! She knows just how to make the life of Reading Consultants and intermediate classroom teachers so much easier. Although, That's a Great Answer, is a wonderful guide to use with students for open ended literature responses, this book goes one step further and has actual lesson plans for immediate use. In addition to that, there are several booksreferenced for each individual strand that make wonderful lessons. A CD accompanies this book which allows you to easily copy templates and lesson plans. Also, the binding of this book is the best! Copying is simple because the book stays open, unlike most, and the pages copy superbly. This is a wonderful resource which I strongly recommend to all reading consultants and intermediate teachers. Thank you, Nancy, for all your hard work and time!!










... Read more

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Accessible, concise guides for quicker, more effective studying

These new additions to the Increase Your Score series present key principles and practical strategies for the ACT Writing Test (new for 2005) and the ACT Reading Test, explained in manageable, bite-size sections ideal for the panicked student. Combining humor with academic authority, these succinct guides:

• Feature essential strategies for effective essay writing or tackling reading comprehension passages under the pressure of time
• Provide sample essays or reading passages and questions, accompanied by helpful annotated comments and examiner marks
• Are ideal for students who procrastinate or who can study only in short doses
• Include cartoons (Zits, Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes) to reinforce the light, student-friendly tone

Customer Reviews (11)

Good book
This book is a good aid for the ACT Reading.It has great tips and strategies.The main thing that helped me was the practice passages at the end of book.I definitely recommend it to anybody whom needs help with the Reading section.

Helpful
My daughter used this book to help her prepare for the ACT test.She indicated that is was very helpful.

Bravo
Call me Nico. Most of the prep books I looked at reminded me of Moby Dick. So much blubber. I didn't want another book filled with filler. The Principles and Strategies in this workare short, to the point, and written in an engaging style. It's a whale of a book with the quality of a lobster tale.

LOVED IT!
Close reading of text has always been a challenge for me. It seems that teachers just expect you to know how to do it without ever showing you. This prep book has principles that emphasize "reading for meaning". I even found myself laughing out loud at times! An easy read with great content.

Smart learning
This prep book actually has cartoons that are funny. And the authors are pretty amusing considering the subject matter. But the good news is that the content has the potential to help you score higher on the writing section. The tips made me think about different ways to approach the writing prompts. As they say, you have to be unafraid to "Take the Shot." No mooncalfing. No lollydolling. Save that for your sweetheart. Buy this book now. ... Read more

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In response to the disparity between what is known about best practice for comprehension instruction and what they saw happening in classrooms, authors Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen have developed an innovative teaching model for grades 3–8. The Guided Comprehension Model is a step-by-step teaching framework that encourages students to become active, strategic readers by providing direct and guided strategy instruction, numerous opportunities for engagement, and a variety of texts and instructional settings.

Guided Comprehension: A Teaching Model for Grades 3–8 is a complete resource that provides all the necessary tools to make this classroom-tested process work with students, from detailed explanations of how each stage functions to ideas for facilitating assessment, organization, and management in the classroom. There are a variety of useful reproducibles in the appendixes, including teaching ideas and blackline masters, forms for organizing and managing comprehension centers and routines, literature response prompts, leveled book resources, assessment forms, and instruction plans.

Classroom teachers, staff developers, Title I reading specialists, and teacher educators will welcome this practical guide that contains everything needed to implement the Guided Comprehension Model in grades 3–8.

The International Reading Association is the world's premier organization of literacy professionals. Our titles promote reading by providing professional development to continuously advance the quality of literacy instruction and research.

Research-based, classroom-tested, and peer-reviewed, IRA titles are among the highest quality tools that help literacy professionals do their jobs better.

Some of the many areas we publish in include:

-Comprehension
-Response To Intervention/Struggling Readers
-Early Literacy
-Adolescent Literacy
-Assessment
-Literacy Coaching
-Research And Policy ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Resource
Guided Reading/comprehension is a fantastic method of teaching reading.I wish I had found it 39 years ago.This book has a multitude of strategies that can be used at any grade level.Not being entirely comfortable with the method, I have been reading various books to help my students.This book has exactly for what I was looking.It has examples of strategies, templates you can use, explanations for different strategies, tips on how to help your students.The companion book is excellent as well.If you can only get one book, start with this one.This adds to Fountas and Pinnell as well as Mosaic of Thought.

One of my Best Teacher Resources
I have taught over 22 years - am always buying new materials - but this has become one of my favorites ! Puts all the reading comprehension strategies together and teaches you the latest methods to improve comprehension. Their other book, Guided Comprehension in Action: Lessons for Grades 3-8, is a great companion book. I have taught workshops using strategies from these books and the other teachers and students love the ideas ! I finally know exactly how to have kids improve comprehension and is great for whole class and small groups. Good for learning styles too ! Heartily endorse ! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Teaching Reading Comprehension Processes (3rd Edition)
This book is a must for any literacy professional. I think it is one of the best books ever written about reading comprehension. Irwin's theory is as applicable in the third edition as it when first published.

A toolfor teachers and students
Clear description of the reading comprehension processes with useful examples of strategies and tasks to help stududents become awareof the ways in which they can work it out and become independent and effective readers. Self- reflection sections and suggestions in the form of tasks turn this book into a must. ... Read more

Product Description
The LSAT is an exam which is full of patterns. Because of this, using previously-administered LSATs is indisputably the most effective way to prepare for the test. LSAT Reading Comprehension passages are typically written in a dense, academic style, and require adept tracking of viewpoints, global concepts, and small details. Fortunately, the passages are consistently drawn from four broad areas. By practicing with Reading Comprehension passages grouped by type, you can gain greater insight into the patterns which govern this often overlooked section, and learn to successfully navigate the "gray areas" from which the test makers frequently draw in crafting the questions. In this volume, Cambridge LSAT groups the eighty Reading Comprehension passages from PrepTests 21-40 by type, and presents each particular grouping in order of increasing difficulty. Thus, as your performance improves in any one category, you will face more challenging passages.

Chapters
o Humanities
o Law
o Natural Sciences
o Social Sciences
... Read more

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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) ... Read more