Author Description

"Why is high-quality teacher education so critical for literacy teachers? The preponderance of research tells us it is the teacher, not the instructional program or technology, who makes the difference in effective reading instruction. As a knowledgeable, skilled, and successful literacy teacher, you will need to reflect regularly and carefully on your teaching decisions in order to understand and meet the literacy needs of every student in your classes, especially today, when the responsibility for quality education has been returned to the states-many of which have adopted the Common Core State Standards or some version of standards closely aligned with the Common Core. It is a tall order, but this book will become your personal guide to help you succeed in meeting the literacy needs for each child. Teaching Children to Read: The Teacher Makes the Difference, Nineth Edition, emphasizes the essential nature of the teacher's role in effective literacy instruction. At the core of this new edition, we continue to assert the primacy of the role of teacher effectiveness as the key to powerful literacy instruction. To that end, we have thoroughly updated our popular seven pillars of effective reading instruction to provide a logical and consistent structure for closely examining the essential elements of effective reading instruction that well-prepared literacy teachers know, understand, and are able to implement in classrooms. By organizing every chapter around learning outcomes and these seven pillars, and aligning chapter content to the International Literacy Association and the Common Core State Standards within each of these seven pillars, the concept of the teacher as lynchpin in literacy instruction is reinforced and cemented. The seven pillars will help ground your thinking about future teaching and enable you to successfully perform your vital role of helping all children become college- and career-ready readers and writers. Finally, in this edition we have enha