Teaching Every Child to Read

Working from recent research on learning styles and also from classroom results, Dunn and Blake (administrative and instructional leadership and education, respectively, St. John's U.) and their contributors supply a diverse range of instructional approaches, strategies and specific lessons tailored to the needs of new and struggling learners. They describe the research and theory behind their strategies, then give ways to get very young children ready for reading through kinesthetic games, singing and other musical activities, tape-recorded books and by naming body parts. For children in elementary grades they provide lessons based on language games, rebus and rhyme, poetry, and scrapbooking and for middle school children they provide exercises involving cultural texts, programmed learning exercises, small groups and contact activity. Especially good are their tips for parents, which include exercises using baking, preparing for a trip or vacation, and reading everyday print. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Rita Dunn is coordinator of the Instructional Leadership Doctoral Program at St. John's University. Brett Elizabeth Blake, Ph.D. is coordinator of the Graduate Adolescent Programs and a senior research fellow at the Vincentian Center for Social Justice and Poverty.