A combination of theory, practical applications, and basic knowledge and skills that emphasizes understanding why and how teachers make reading assessment and instruction decisions. Understanding, Assessing, and Teaching Reading is a comprehensive, practical, and easy-to-use text that helps teachers gather assessment data in order to make teaching decisions. The demand is greater than ever for teachers who understand why they do what they do in reading assessment. Good teachers must understand factors that affect reading and also assessment techniques they can use to better understand how these factors affect individual readers. Good teachers also ask questions about each student to help select, administer, and interpret the most appropriate assessments. In addition to building teachers’ understanding of the reading assessment process, this text presents a wide variety of reading skills, strategies, and teaching techniques that are appropriate follow-ups to assessments. The 8th Edition retains the many powerful assessment instruments and techniques that have made the text so widely used. New content includes: a dedicated chapter on assessing and teaching writing (Ch. 13); “bridge” features that emphasize how teachers connect understanding-assessment-instruction; and updated children’s literature recommendations. Also available with the Enhanced Pearson eText* The Enhanced Pearson eText is: <ul>
<li> Engaging. The new interactive, multimedia learning features were developed by the authors and other subject-matter experts to deepen and enrich the learning experience. </li> <li> Convenient. Enjoy instant online access from your computer or download the Pearson eText App to read on or offline on your iPad® and Android® tablet.** </li> <li> Affordable. Experience the advantages of the Enhanced Pearson eText along with all the benefits of print for 40% to 50% less than a print bound book. </li> </ul>
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Understanding, Assessing, and Teaching Reading: A Diagnostic Approach

Education & Teaching

Erekson, James

Schendel, Roland

Opitz, Michael F.

Schools & Teaching

Pearson

The authors' aim is to show where oral reading fits in the reading program and share twenty-five of the best strategies for helping children learn to read aloud.

Good-bye Round Robin: 25 Effective Oral Reading Strategies

Reference

Rasinski, Timothy

Words, Language & Grammar

Heinemann

Here at last is a theoretically sound, delightfully readable alternative to commercial phonics kits. Rhymes &amp; Reasons is a smart, up-to-date, all-in-one guide to phonological awareness-what it is, what it isn't, and the best practices for teaching it. Most important, it spotlights the best of recently published children's literature that can be used to foster children's understanding of phonological awareness in enjoyable and meaningful contexts. 
 "My goal" says author Michael Opitz, "is to provide a resource for busy teachers to access quality literature and provide kid-tested, practical suggestions that will engage children and further finesse their phonological awareness." In clear and accessible prose, he explains the differences between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics. All sorts of language play are explored-assonance, rhyme, rhythm, phoneme substitution, alliteration, and more-as Opitz provides detailed suggestions for teaching these features. 
 The most valued feature of the book is certain to be the extensively annotated treasury of current children's literature. More than 350 books are listed, all carefully selected according to the following criteria: 
<ul>
<li> All books feature some sort of language play. </li>
<li> Each book lends itself to further language-exploration activities and book extension ideas. </li>
<li> Content is appropriate for primary grade-level readers-both in terms of ideas and language. </li>
<li> Book choices can be read aloud. </li>
<li> All are authentic texts (i.e., written from a literary as opposed to pedagogical standpoint). </li>
<li> All can be purchased in a bookstore or found in local libraries. </li>
</ul> What's more, Opitz provides additional support through a related website that is accessible through the Heinemann homepage. With a resource as comprehensive and current as this, teachers will be well prepared as they seek to instill a love of language and set children on the road to becoming independent lifelong readers.

Rhymes and Reasons : Literature & Language Play for Phonological Awareness

Opitz, Michael

The breakout success of guided reading comes as no surprise to most teachers. But is there only one way to do guided reading? Must teachers follow a defined set of guidelines? Michael Opitz and Michael Ford's response is an emphatic "No." With Reaching Readers, they offer a second-generation model of guided reading - one that urges teachers to expand their vision and presents alternative practices. Reaching Readers originates from the idea that there are at least five considerations that need to be thought through for meaningful guided reading to occur: 
<ul>
<li>
Roles and Goals: There are many different guided reading experiences, each one calling for different ways to group children and structure what happens. Opitz and Ford help you think through your roles and goals to obtain a broader perspective. </li>
<li>
Assessment and Grouping: Good instruction begins with assessing, which leads to grouping decisions. Reaching Readers addresses your concerns about size, number, and group members, including how to use the results of assessment strategies and form groups. </li>
<li>
Texts: There are many different types of texts and several ways to match texts to readers. Readers will find here suggestions for using each type of text as well as sample titles. </li>
<li>
Instruction: It's essential that each guided reading lesson be strategically planned. Opitz and Ford visit nine different classrooms that show purposeful guided reading experiences in action to help you develop your own instruction. </li>
<li>
Organization and Management: One adult with several children requires some kind of organization and management plan. The book presents ideas for keeping children meaningfully engaged, freeing you to interact with small guided reading groups with minimal interruptions. </li>
</ul> Opitz and Ford's goal is to make guided reading an even more effective and efficient instructional technique. With this book, you can help ensure that all students reach their full potential as independent, lifelong readers.

Reaching Readers: Flexible and Innovative Strategies for Guided Reading

Ford, Michael P.

Try counting how many different types of texts you read each day. Now count how few your students read in class. Michael Opitz, Michael Ford, and Matthew Zbaracki argue that if we want children to meet our literacy expectations, we must do more than supplement basal reading or anthologies with a few books here and there. What kids need to grow into lifelong readers is true variety in a print-rich classroom, teaching that values their out-of-school literacy as well as their in-school literacy, and an emphasis on what works, instead of what's mandated. Books and Beyond is a book of big ideas and smart, useful strategies. Opitz, Ford, and Zbaracki suggest ways to model literate behaviors so that students come to understand that reading is not reserved for the classroom but permeates everything adults do. They describe step by step how to use ten distinct types of outside-world text in your reading program, including a wide range of genres and media. They offer specific advice and instructional alternatives for each kind of text and answer key instructional questions about it such as: <ul>
<li>Why use it?</li> <li>How can it be used in the classroom?</li> <li>How does it work with different age groups?</li> <li>What are examples that are appropriate for students?</li> <li>What websites are good for researching it?</li> </ul>
Books and Beyond has everything you need to create a reading program that truly offers students choice alongside a strong sense of how and why we use reading in our everyday lives. And with tips for working around the obstacles of basals, suggestions for reforming the attitudes that have left many real-world texts undervalued, ignored, or even banned from classroom use, as well as methods for using alternative texts to increase student interest and motivation, it's got enough savvy to help you make the transition to a balanced reading program without making waves. If you or your students struggle with banal basal programs, or if you'd simply like to open children's eyes to a wider world of genres, texts, and literature, read Books and Beyond. You'll find a whole new world of reading instruction at your fingertips.

Books and Beyond: New Ways to Reach Readers

Literature & Fiction

Zbaracki, Matthew

History & Criticism

Good-bye Round Robin offers numerous practical suggestions for engaging English language learners in meaningful oral-language activities, all connected to wonderful, recently-published books for students of different ages and reading abilities. Opitz' book provides specific strategies teachers can use to help their ELLs develop both oral and written English proficiency. This book is an excellent resource for any teacher, but it is an especially useful resource for teachers of English language learners. - Yvonne and David Freeman Authors of Essential Linguistics and Teaching Reading in Multilingual Classrooms Oral reading can increase the comprehension, fluency, and strategic thinking of every reader - if you have the right strategies. Good-bye Round Robin, Updated Edition, gives you the 25 best ways to turn oral reading into one of your most effective literacy tools. Good-bye Round Robin, Updated Edition, makes it easy to work the right amount and the right types of oral reading into your teaching. Michael Opitz and Timothy Rasinski present proven oral-reading strategies, every one of which fits easily into your existing literacy block routines. And this Updated Edition goes further than ever to help you get the most from every oral-reading opportunity. It's newly designed to help you match readers to instruction more quickly and confidently. Opitz and Rasinski have revised and expanded their booklists to include over 300 new children's literature titles, enabling you to choose the best book for your lessons and your readers. What's more they offer classroom-tested ways to use oral reading to support struggling readers and English learners at all stages of language acquisition. Use Good-bye Round Robin, Updated Edition, and make the most of oral reading.

Good-bye Round Robin, Updated Edition: 25 Effective Oral Reading Strategies

This book is one of the few that focuses on oral language development, a crucial but often overlooked component of academic development for ELLs. It helps fill a gap in the professional resources teachers need to help their English language learners reach high levels of oral and written English proficiency. -David and Yvonne Freeman Authors of Teaching Reading in Multilingual Classrooms and Essential Linguistics Oral reading is powerful enough to simultaneously support every student's comprehension learning and scaffold English language learners' progress toward proficiency. But not just any kind of oral reading will do. To help everyone in your class, you need effective, engaging strategies that can motivate all readers and help them learn to make meaning with texts-the kind you'll find in Comprehension and English Language Learners. The 25 oral reading strategies in Comprehension and English Language Learners support students with differing levels of English proficiency during regular reading instruction-from beginners to those completely comfortable with their new language. Michael Opitz (coauthor of Goodbye Round Robin, Updated Edition) and Lindsey Moses help you go beyond oral reading activities such as round robin or popcorn reading that have no research base and that can actually inhibit reading progress. With their strategies, you'll instead help English language learners: 
<ul>
<li>develop and monitor reading and listening comprehension</li> <li>evaluate texts and engage with authors</li> <li>learn social and academic vocabulary</li> <li>connect writing, reading, speaking, listening, and viewing</li> <li>get motivated to read on their own.</li> </ul> In addition, Opitz and Moses make determining students' level of English proficiency easier with a primer on effective ELL assessment. They show you how each strategy can work within or across levels to help English learners make progress or consolidate gains. Each strategy is clearly presented and ready to use today with teaching suggestions, classroom examples, suggested children's literature, and online resources. Supplement your silent-reading program with oral reading that works. Read Comprehension and English Language Learners and teach with its strategies. Then listen to your English language learners to hear how powerful oral reading can be for developing comprehension.

Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies That Cross Proficiency Levels

Freeman, David E.

Freeman, Yvonne S.

Moses, Lindsey

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

Count on the assessment that only counts what really counts With these nine sensible, essential assessments, teachers can gather all the data they need. We share these assessments and show teachers how to use them across a school year for maximum instructional effect Michael Opitz, Michael Ford, and James Erekson "Data-driven instruction" is a new education watchword. But today teachers don't have time to collect data about readers that isn't absolutely essential. Accessible Assessment simplifies reading instruction by only counting what really counts. Accessible Assessment isn't like many of today's complex, time-consuming assessment programs. It combines nine informal techniques into a manageable, calendarized framework that makes sense and drives highly targeted, differentiated instruction. Opitz, Ford, and Erekson help teachers: <ul>
<li>measure only what matters most</li> <li>assess with the confidence that comes from a strong research base</li> <li>increase consistency and organization across school years, grades, and buildings</li> <li>implement predictable assessment structures flexibly</li> <li>plan short-, medium-, and long-range instructional goals.</li> </ul>
Accessible Assessment can make a big difference for individual teachers, but it's even more powerful for teaching teams or entire buildings. It can bring a new level of coherence to any crucial assessment task, including: <ul>
<li>screening, progress monitoring, and diagnostics for RTI</li> <li>assessing for key reading standards (including Common Core)</li> <li>sharing information with colleagues, administrators, and parents. </li> </ul>
Make assessment count more than ever by counting only what really counts. Count on Accessible Assessment.

Accessible Assessment: How 9 Sensible Techniques Can Power Data-Driven Reading Instruction

Erekson, James A.

"Some learners need to make more than one academic year's worth of growth in an academic year. We need instructional techniques that provide more bang for our buck and accelerate student growth." -Michael Opitz and Michael Ford When readers need more from us, we need more juice from our teaching. Classroom Catalysts shares a power pack of 15 instructional accelerators for meeting students' needs and closing grade-level gaps. Michael Opitz and Michael Ford show how to help jump-start learning so students not only make progress but reach proficiency. They present accelerators for whole-group, small-group, and individual instruction. These simple but surprisingly powerful techniques can actually create additional teaching time by bringing extra instructional energy to existing practices as well as seemingly noninstructional moments. For each of their 15 accelerators, Opitz and Ford show you how it fuses differentiation and acceleration. They offer getting-started suggestions, share reproducible templates, and provide ways to adapt the idea to your own situation. Reaching more readers with more of what they need and putting students on a path to make more than a year's progress isn't impossible. Begin by charging up your teaching with Classroom Catalysts.

Classroom Catalysts: 15 Efficient Practices That Accelerate Readers’ Learning

Comprehension and English Language Learners (Print eBook Bundle): 25 Oral Reading Strategies That Cross Proficiency Levels

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