CREATESPACE Reading Development: A Handbook of Assessment and Instruction Vol. 2

This is a rich resource for assessing and teaching reading. It lays out a developmental continuum of reading behaviors starting at birth and continuing through the fully mature and developed adult reader. The Continuum is organized into three major components: Engagement, Comprehension, and Language-to-Print. Each component is broken down into several major categories of reading behaviors. The Continuum is divided into seven phases of development, from the Pre-Verbal through the Flexible Phase. Each phase has a set of fully defined sub-categories of behaviors appropriate to that level framed as questions so that the Continuum becomes a functional assessment tool. (e.g., “Does the reader word-match with steady fluency, phrase-chunking appropriately?”) As such, it allows teachers to plan for differentiated instruction that pinpoints specific learning needs. Every behavior is accompanied by a set of suggested instructional strategies for helping the learner become competent with that behavior. Hundreds of engaging trade books of all genres are included in the teacher-tried activities, thereby freeing educators from over reliance on basal reading programs that don’t always meet the needs of all learners. Volume 1 focuses on pre-reading and early reading development, covering Pre-Verbal, Pre-Print, Emergent, and Print-Focused Phases. Volume 2 focuses on the Print-Focused, Consolidation, Silent, and Flexible Phases. Both volumes include the Introduction and Overview chapters and a copy of the full Continuum. Literacy standards can be met through using strategies in this resource to support learners.This resource is appropriate for all educators interested in supporting reading development: regular, special, and ELL teachers at all levels, teacher educators and teacher trainees, reading specialists and resource personnel, parents, home-schoolers, Montessori educators, administrators, and district reading supervisors. It allows schools as well as individual teachers and home-schooling parents to customize their plans to meet the needs of the learners in their care.