Recommended Books

Basic reading proficiency is key to success in all content areas, but attending to students' literacy development remains a challenge for many teachers, especially after the primary grades. Knowledge to Support the Teaching of Reading presents recommendations for the essential knowledge about the development, acquisition, and teaching of language and literacy skills that teachers need to master and use.

• Purchase book

Brad Buhrow and Anne Garcia are primary teachers who have blended comprehension instruction and ELL best practices to explore inquiry as a literacy pathway for English language learners. The book is full of photographs of student artwork, and the authors provide explicit detail on the process they use as they move step-by-step with students from personal narrative through the independent inquiry process. Appendices in Spanish and English included.

• Purchase book

"Corson takes a critical stance on language policy, providing a strong but accessible theoretical foundation for why and how language policy can inform what ultimately happens in schools and classrooms. And there is more: The book includes myriad case studies and examples from actual school sites in a style of writing that will ring true to teachers and administrators. This book propels the centrality of language for school policy well into the 21st century, making it essential reading for educators concerned with the needs of children and adolescents from diverse languages and cultures." –Christian Faltis, Arizona State University

• Purchase book

This volume addresses the pressing reality in teacher education that all teachers need to be prepared to work effectively with linguistically and culturally diverse student populations. The literature on language education has typically been discussed in relation to preparing ESL or bilingual teachers, while the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students, including immigrants, refugees, language minority populations, African Americans, and deaf students, have been addressed separately. This volume emphasizes that these children have both common educational needs and needs that are culturally and linguistically specific, and is directed to the preparation of all teachers who work with culturally and linguistically diverse students. The chapters are presented in three sections: knowledge, practice, and policy.

• Purchase book

Executive functions are the cognitive skills that help us manage our lives and be successful. Children with weak executive skills, despite their best intentions, often do their homework but forget to turn it in, wait until the last minute to start a project, lose things, or have a room that looks like a dump! The good news is that parents can do a lot to support and train their children to manage these frustrating and stressful weaknesses.

• Purchase book

Paul Osborne's LD SAT Study Guide is an SAT prep manual designed for students with learning disabilities. By using three different types of instruction—instruction based on specific disabilities or difficulties, advice for anyone with a learning disability, and general SAT prep instruction—the LD SAT Study Guide provides information students need to help their score reflect their aptitude and not their disabilities.

• Purchase book

Betty J. Alford and Mary Catherine Niño present an informative guide that will provide administrators important insights on the structural and strategic changes needed to create an environment in which ELLs will succeed. Some of these approaches focus creating a culture of academic achievement for ELLs; others focus on building capacity and examining opportunities for school improvement while meeting the needs of ELLs. The authors provide detailed rubrics, tools, and lists of recommended resources/websites to supplement the content of each chapter. Excerpts from the first two chapters are available from Google books.

• Purchase book

This edited collection of articles gives the human side of the social issue of learning disabilities. Personal perspectives movingly describe family life, education and work. Experts write about diagnosis and definition of learning disabilities.

• Purchase book

This book is about helping youngsters with learning disabilities hold onto their dreams. It is also about helping their mothers and fathers negotiate the maze of challenges that so often leaves parents and students alike feeling overwhelmed and helpless. Writing with warmth and compassion Corinne Smith and Lisa Strick explain the causes, identification, and treatment of learning disabilities and present a wealth of practical strategies for helping youngsters become successful both in and out of the classroom.

• Purchase book

This book uses the Building Blocks model. The Building Blocks model is practical, supported by research, and easy to implement. It identifies ten areas important to school success (the building blocks), divided into three levels:

1. the foundational level includes attention and impulse control, emotion and behavior, self-esteem, and learning environment blocks
2. the symbolic processing and memory level contains the visual, auditory, and motor skills blocks
3. the conceptual level comprises using strategies and thinking with language and images

• Purchase book