Sine its publication in 2000, Strategies That Work has become an indispensable resource for teachers who want to explicitly teacher thinking strategies so that students become engaged, thoughtful, independent readers. In this revised and expanded edition, the authors have added 20 completely new comprehension lessons, extending the scope of the book and exploring the central role that activating background knowledge plays in understanding. Another major addition is a section on content literacy that describes how to apply comprehension strategies flexibly across the curriculum. The new edition is organised around four sections:
- Part I explains what comprehension is and how to teach it, including the principles that guide practice, a review of recent research and a new section on assessment.
- Part II is organised by strategy and contains lessons and practices for teaching comprehension. At the end of each strategy chapter, the authors outline learning goals and ways to assess student’s learning. They share examples of student work along with assessment commentaries and offer suggestions for differentiating instruction.
- Part III focuses on comprehension strategies, and includes chapters on social sciences and science reading, topic study research, textbook reading and the genre of test reading.
- Part IV shows that kids need books they can sink their teeth into, and the updated appendixes recommend a rich diet of fiction and nonfiction, short text, kids’ magazines, websites and journals that will assist teachers as they design and implement comprehension instruction.
Through its focus on instruction that is responsive to kids’ interests and learning needs, the first edition of Strategies That Work helped transform comprehension instruction for teachers. For them, this new edition will be a welcome extension of that work.
