Locating and Correcting Reading Difficulties (7th Edition)

Shanker, James L.; Ekwall, Eldon E.

ISBN 10: 0138629625 ISBN 13: 9780138629625

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 1997

Synopsis

Updated and revised throughout, this new edition once again provides busy reading instructors with concrete methods for locating and correcting reading difficulties. This well organized book uses clear language to explain the steps involved in understanding the diagnostic/remedial process. Code for marking in oral diagnosis, materials for assessing readers' knowledge of the alphabet, basic sight words and phrases, phonics, structural analysis, and the use of context clues and reading interests are included in helpful appendices. Appropriate for readers interested in Reading Diagnosis and Remediation.

About this title

From the Publisher

One of the most popular volumes in reading education...a practical, "how to" book that provides future elementary reading teachers with concrete, straightforward methods for identifying and correcting 28 common reading errors.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The eighth edition of this book, like previous editions, is organized to provide reading specialists, teachers, tutors, and reading education students with specific, concrete methods for locating and correcting reading difficulties. It can be used in classroom or remedial situations and is designed so that busy practitioners can find in one place the essential information they need to help struggling readers overcome their literacy difficulties. Direct instruction, motivational learning activities, and abundant practice in the act of reading are stressed. As in the previous editions, instruction in individual reading skills is recommended where appropriate; however, emphasis is also placed on the use of strategic approaches to the teaching of reading.

ORGANIZING TO ASSIST STRUGGLING READERS

This book is composed of 29 chapters, divided into six major parts, which cover the full range of reading and reading-related skills. While the major features of the previous edition have been retained, this new edition has been updated and reorganized to make the information within more accessible to the reader.

Methods and Approaches. The first section of this book is an introductory chapter that provides information on important principles of effective instruction for students who have reading difficulties. It is hoped that these principles will guide your reading throughout the remainder of the book. This chapter also presents useful techniques or approaches for teaching students with reading difficulties. These techniques/approaches are included in this chapter because they apply to many of the specific reading problems that are the focus of subsequent chapters. The first approach describes a number of oral reading techniques that have been shown to be unusually effective in helping students as they struggle to master decoding skills. Equally important, these techniques are among the most powerful teachers can use to develop students' reading fluency and build a foundation for better reading comprehension. A second method is the language-experience approach, which benefits both beginning and remedial readers. In this section, you will find a thorough description of these approaches and many practical activities for application in the classroom or tutorial setting.

As with previous editions, the Reading Diagnosis Chart (see page xiii) matches the logical development of various reading skills and corresponds to the order of the chapters. The basic format of each chapter is the same. A section titled "Recognized By" defines and/or describes the reading difficulty. The "Discussion" section provides additional background information and explains how to test or otherwise determine if a student is experiencing difficulty in this area. The "Recommendations" section offers an alphabetical listing of specific strategies or activities you may use to help the student overcome the problem. In most chapters, these suggestions are followed by a variety of "Games and Exercises" that may be used to provide students with independent practice.

Emergent Literacy. Part 2 addresses emergent literacy skills. In this edition, Chapter 1 is now devoted entirely to phonemic awareness, reflecting recent research affirming the importance of this area in early reading development. Alphabet knowledge is now addressed separately in Chapter 2. Tests for phonemic awareness (in Appendix B-4) assess rhyming ability, initial sound recognition, phoneme blending, and phoneme segmentation. Specific instructional procedures added to Chapter 1 are matched to each of the skills tested.

Decoding Skills. In previous editions, Part 3 consisted of chapters focusing on a variety of different oral reading problems. In nearly every case, these problems are caused by some weakness in the reader's decoding skills. For this reason, decoding skills are now presented before oral reading difficulties. In these chapters you will learn how to assess and teach various decoding skills such as sight vocabulary, phonics, structural analysis, and the use of context clues.

Oral Reading, Comprehension, and Study Skills. Part 4 consists of 10 chapters on specific oral reading difficulties such as poor pronunciation, omissions, repetitions, and so on. Part 5 addresses comprehension skills. Part 6 addresses instruction in study skills and other skills essential to success in school.

THE APPENDICES: TOOLS FOR LOCATING AND CORRECTING READING DIFFICULTIES

We encourage readers to use the materials provided in the appendices for locating reading difficulties to construct their own diagnostic kits. These appendices include a code for marking in oral diagnosis and, as previously noted, a new set of tests for phonemic awareness. The appendices also include materials and directions for assessing students' knowledge of the alphabet, basic sight words and phrases, phonics, structural analysis, contractions, the use of context clues, and two reading interest surveys. A new test for assessing the reading interests of older students and adults has been added to this edition. Altogether, more than 30 different diagnostic tests are provided in these appendices. Specific directions and important points to remember are provided for administering each test or survey instrument.

Thirteen appendices have been provided for correcting reading difficulties. The first, a new appendix titled "Books for Emergent Readers," consists of lists of rhyming books, books with alliteration, and alphabet books. You will also find appendices for basic sight word sentences, a phonics primer, and newly revised phonogram lists, including sentences and other new features in this popular phonics instructional program. Next is an appendix titled "Words for Teaching Short and Long Vowels," followed by "Words, Sentences, and Stories for Teaching Structural Analysis." The remaining appendices address prepositional phrases, prefixes and suffixes, the cloze procedure, a chart for graphing students' progress in using the technique of repeated readings, a description of and charts for graphing students' progress in using the precision reading technique, charts for graphing words per minute and comprehension, and suggestions for interviewing parents of disabled readers.

Finally, definitions of terms appear in a glossary at the end of the book.

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0138629625
• ISBN 13: 9780138629625
• Binding: Textbook Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 522