Comprehension from the Ground Up: Simplified, Sensible Instruction for the K-3 Reading Workshop

Why has comprehension instruction become so complex?

Sharon Taberski cuts through the pressurized, strategy-overloaded, fluency-crazed atmosphere surrounding reading instruction to lay out the reading and writing workshop practices that are most effective in developing readers in the primary grades. She shares the daily how-tos needed to sustain a literacy block that engages children in authentic reading and writing practices including dozens of effective practices that illustrate amazing ways to organize instructional and independent reading for kids including:

• letter and sound searches that improve students' word accuracy and fluency
• companion books bags that develop their confidence and comprehension
• strategy sheets that make children's thinking about text concrete
• a Putting Our Strategies to Work Board that enables students to reflect on and discuss the meta-cognitive strategies they're using
• Idea Books and Ta-da Publishing Books that help children get inside the reading and writing process and see how each feeds the other.

Two Options for dynamic DVD-based staff development:

• for your workshop or PLC, the Lessons from the Ground Up DVD features 105-minutes of video clips of Sharon in the classroom, modeling effective ways to develop comprehension plus a 64-page facilitator's guide supports the DVD, lesson by lesson.
• It's All About Comprehension is a long-term staff development initiative with 3 DVDs (7 hours) of whole-class, small-group, and one-on-one instruction from Sharon.

Sharon Taberski is a nationally recognized educator, author, and presenter. A teacher for 28 years, Sharon currently works in school districts throughout the country helping teachers set up reading and writing workshops, and think systematically about how to best accomplish their goals. She also presents keynotes and seminars throughout the US and Canada. Sharon has been a member of NCTE's editorial board, and has served on the development committee for the Primary Literacy Standards (more commonly known as New Standards) by the National Center on Education and the Economy. In her latest work, Comprehension from the Ground Up, Sharon cuts through the pressurized, strategy-overloaded, fluency-crazed atmosphere surrounding reading instruction to lay out reading and workshop practices that are most effective in the primary grades. The companion DVD, Lessons from the Ground Up, shows Sharon in the classroom, modeling effective ways to develop comprehension in real-life classroom settings through exemplary teaching techniques and is perfect for your workshop or PLC. Sharon is also the author of It's ALL About Comprehension, Teaching K-3 Readers from the Ground Up, a DVD set for long-term staff development that shows how to teach children through rich, varied, comprehension-building experiences through the literacy block. Sharon is also the author of On Solid Ground: Strategies for Teaching Reading K-3, and the video series A Close-Up Look at Teaching Reading: Focusing on Children and Our Goals.