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“This is a gem of a book that accomplishes the most difficult task of both providing a research base for the interventions and describing them in meaningful ways for practicing teachers. What makes this book exceptional is that each chapter is packed with instructional practices that are proven to enhance student outcomes.”

—Sharon Vaughn, PhD, Executive Director, Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, and Manuel J. Justiz Endowed Chair in Education, The University of Texas at Austin


“In this timely volume, well-established researchers summarize what is known about how to improve students' reading performance and provide specific ideas for applying this knowledge in schools. It is a valuable resource for educators seeking to use research-based interventions in developing effective literacy programs. The Handbook is unique in its range—preschool through secondary levels—and its comprehensiveness. It addresses content-area instruction; various factors affecting comprehension; writing; the older reader; and more, and presents actual lessons that illustrate instructional strategies. It could serve as a text for a graduate course on working with struggling readers.”

—Rita M. Bean, PhD, Department of Instruction and Learning (Emerita), University of Pittsburgh


“The editors have done some of the seminal research on response to intervention (RTI) in reading. This volume opens up new dimensions to what RTI in literacy can be and how it can be expanded to include comprehension, vocabulary development, writing, and study skills. It should have a profound effect on the field.”

—Russell Gersten, PhD, Director, Instructional Research Group, Los Alamitos, California

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction, Patricia F. Vadasy and Rollanda E. O'Connor

2. Phoneme Awareness and the Alphabetic Principle, Rollanda E. O'Connor

3. Preschool Foundations for Reading and Writing Success, Theresa A. Roberts

4. Phases in Reading Words and Phonics Interventions, Louise Spear-Swerling

5. Morphemic Approaches for Reading Words, Terezinha Nunes and Peter Bryant

6. Teaching Spelling to Students with Learning Difficulties, Michael M. Gerber and Catherine Richards-Tutor

7. Making Vocabulary Interventions Engaging and Effective, Margaret G. McKeown and Isabel L. Beck

8. Fluency Problems: When, Why, and How to Intervene, Roxanne Hudson

9. Main Idea and Summarization Instruction to Improve Reading Comprehension, Asha K. Jitendra and Meenakshi Gajria

10. Metacognition to Improve Reading Comprehension, Janette K. Klingner, Ann Morrison, and Amy Eppolito

11. Teaching Narrative and Expository Text Structure to Improve Comprehension, Joanna P. Williams and Lisa S. Pao

12. Peer-Mediated Approaches, Mary Abbott, Charles R. Greenwood, Jay Buzhardt, Howard P. Wills, and Barbara Terry

13. Supplemental Reading Instruction by Paraeducators and Tutors: Recent Research and Applications, Patricia F. Vadasy

14. On the Comprehension and Production of Written Texts: Instructional Activities That Support Content-Area Literacy, Ralph P. Ferretti and Susan De La Paz

15. Cultural Aspects of Teaching Reading with Latino English Language Learners, Michael J. Orosco and Rollanda E. O'Connor

16. Teaching Older Students to Read, Rollanda E. O'Connor and Vanessa Goodwin

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About the Editors

Rollanda E. O'Connor, PhD, is Professor of Education at the University of California, Riverside. She taught reading in special and general education classrooms for many years and has conducted numerous intervention studies in special and general education settings, explored procedures to predict in kindergarten and first grade which children are likely to develop reading difficulties, and followed the reading progress of children who received early intervention. Her longitudinal studies of intervention and assessment led to the development (with Patricia F. Vadasy) of Ladders to Literacy, a collection of phonological and print awareness activities and scaffolding suggestions for children at risk for reading problems, and the book Teaching Word Recognition: Effective Strategies for Students with Learning Difficulties. Dr. O'Connor's current research includes evaluating the effects of early, continuous intervention across the first 4 years of schooling and developing research-based interventions for students with reading difficulties in the intermediate grades.

• All titles by Rollanda E. O'Connor

Patricia F. Vadasy, PhD, is Senior Researcher at the Oregon Research Institute in Seattle, Washington. Her background is in early reading acquisition and instruction, instructional design, and intervention research. Dr. Vadasy oversees a research team engaged in research on effective school-based literacy interventions for at-risk and struggling students. She has published findings on her grant-funded intervention research widely in peer-reviewed journals. She is the lead author (with Rollanda E. O’Connor) of the Sound Partners code-oriented supplemental tutoring program and coauthor (with Rollanda E. O’Connor) of the Ladders to Literacy preschool and kindergarten programs.

• All titles by Patricia F. Vadasy

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Contributors

Mary Abbott, PhD, Juniper Gardens Children's Project, University of Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas

Isabel L. Beck, PhD, Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Peter Bryant, PhD, Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Jay Buzhardt, PhD, Juniper Gardens Children's Project, University of Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas

Susan De La Paz, PhD, Department of Special Education, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

Amy Eppolito, MEd, School of Education, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado

Ralph P. Ferretti, PhD, School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware

Meenakshi Gajria, PhD, Division of Teacher Education, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill, New York

Michael M. Gerber, PhD, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California

Vanessa Goodwin, PhD, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California

Charles R. Greenwood, PhD, Juniper Gardens Children's Project, University of Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas

Roxanne Hudson, PhD, Area of Special Education, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Asha K. Jitendra, PhD, Department of Education Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Janette K. Klingner, PhD, School of Education, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado

Margaret G. McKeown, PhD, Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Ann Morrison, PhD, Department of Teacher Education, Metropolitan State College, Denver, Colorado

Terezinha Nunes, PhD, Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Rollanda E. O'Connor, PhD, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California

Michael J. Orosco, PhD, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California

Lisa S. Pao, MA, Department of Human Development, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York

Catherine Richards-Tutor, PhD, College of Education, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, California

Theresa A. Roberts, PhD, Department of Child Development, California State University, Sacramento, Sacramento, California

Louise Spear-Swerling, PhD, Department of Special Education and Reading, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Connecticut

Barbara Terry, PhD, Juniper Gardens Children's Project, University of Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas

Patricia F. Vadasy, PhD, Oregon Research Institute, Seattle, Washington

Joanna P. Williams, PhD, Department of Human Development, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York



Howard P. Wills, PhD, Juniper Gardens Children's Project, University of Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas

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Audience

*Unique: a comprehensive source covering evidence-based reading interventions.
*Expert contributors provide needed links from current research to effective instruction.
*Includes teaching scripts to illustrate best practices.
*Will have broad appeal among general and special educators at all grade levels.

Reading specialists in PreK–10; classroom teachers and special educators; researchers and instructors in literacy.

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Course Use

May serve as a supplemental text in graduate-level courses.