by Dawn Reithaug

The following is taken from the Preface of the above book and answers pertinent questions regarding its content, use, research base, grade level applications, and purposes.

"What is this book about?

"This book is about assessing and teaching reading and is based upon the five components of reading. These components are phonemic awareness (the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the sounds that make up spoken language), phonics (the recognition that letters are used to represent speech sounds), fluency (the ability to read words with accuracy, speed, and expression), vocabulary, and strategies for comprehending text. It is especially about teaching those students who are struggling with reading. Struggling readers are students of any age who cannot fluently read, and comprehend, text written at a level where one could reasonably expect them to read at that age. In other words, these are students who cannot read and understand text at their grade level. These students will need intensive, explicit teaching of the five components along with consistency of support, individually or in small groups, with frequent feedback, and monitoring of their performance.

"Who is this book for?"

"This book is intended for use by all persons who help students learn to read. Teachers and supporting personnel can teach the essential skills and strategies needed for proficient reading--the five components of reading. Parents can also help by guiding their children's practice in reading and extending the time for practice by encouraging at-home reading and reading assignments.

"What grade levels does this book address?"

"This book is not broken down by grade level. Teachers can use the suggestions for assessing and teaching their students, in any grade, and for guiding their students' practicing of reading. Struggling readers in the primary grades will need to have explicit instruction and practice if they have not learned certain skills and strategies from year to year (National Academy of Sciences, 1998). Struggling readers in the intermediate grades will also need to be taught how to read and be given opportunities to practice what they have been taught. For instance, a student in an intermediate grade may have decoding difficulties. Teaching phonemic awareness and phonics will enable the student to decode words more quickly, thus improving his/her fluency and freeing him/her to construct meaning while reading--the ultimate goal of reading. In another instance, a student in a secondary grade may have adequate decoding skills but poor comprehension. In this case the student might need to be taught strategies for comprehending text: monitoring his/her understanding of the text, summarizing information, generating questions, and so on.

"How does this book link to research?"

"We have been fortunate in the past several years to have many significant reviews, reports, and syntheses of reading research as well as numerous articles in journals about teaching reading (see references on pages 515 to 523). These can help teachers and supporting personnel in selecting and implementing effective methods that will enable students to become proficient readers. The methods suggested in this book closely align with this current research on reading.

"What does this book contain?"

"This book contains two sections: Assessing Reading and Teaching Reading.

"Section one presents some methods by which teachers and supporting personnel can identify the skills and strategies their students already have and what they yet need to learn. Assessment needs to be connected to instruction and understood by the student. The methods of assessment in this book, therefore, engage students in scoring and analyzing their results. Assessment also needs to be frequent as we move students along the continuum to becoming proficient readers. This continual assessment will help teachers and supporting personnel customize their teaching of reading to suit the needs of individual students.

"Although students improve at different rates, we still need to be conscious of how each of them is progressing along the way to becoming a proficient reader. If gaps exist at certain times (e.g., at the end of kindergarten or at the end of grade one, two, or three) in specific areas, then we can quickly intervene with explicit and more frequent teaching of reading and monitoring of progress. Early intervention is important because it is extremely difficult for students to catch up later. Disturbing results indicate that those students who are not independent readers by the end of the third grade are unlikely to be come successful readers in the middle grades and beyond (Juel, 1988). These students will have only a minimal chance of achieving competence in literacy without specific interventions (Juel, 1988; Felton & Pepper, 1995).

"Section two presents some methods for teaching reading that are intentional, manageable, and, most importantly, based on current research. Many of these are in the form of cue cards that teachers and supporting personnel can reproduce to support either their teaching of, or their students' learning of, the five components of reading. These methods are complementary to a student's existing reading instruction.

"The ultimate goal is to have students become proficient readers, automatically and fluently constructing meaning from text as they read it, while being aware of the skills and strategies they are using. When we orchestrate assessments that capture their small increments of improvement, along with explicit teaching that supports the harmonious working together of the five components of reading, than students will become more successful!"

Orders and inquires to:

Dawn Reithaug is presently part of a District Learning Support Team in School District 41 -- Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. She is also a part-time consultant, and gives workshops based on her publications throughout Canada. She has worked as a classroom teacher, an English as a Second Language teacher, a learning assistance teacher, and a diagnostic (Assessment Center) teacher.

The author of five books, Dawn holds a Master of Education degree in Special Education from the University of Victoria, British Columbia.

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