Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas

Although there are plenty of professional books on reading in the content areas, most ignore theory, opting instead to include strategies that confuse rather than enlighten. Furthermore, such texts rarely make adequate connections between reading and writing as well as reading and language acquisition--and they disregard linguistic diversity altogether. This book is different.

Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts provides a thorough grounding in the principles and practices of reading, writing, and language development--the kind of grounding teachers need for today's multicultural and multilingual classrooms. It is an innovative text based upon the principles of whole language and the interactive classroom, laying a theoretical framework derived from psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and social constructivism. Once Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson articulate their theory of reading, they offer practical suggestions for creating your own structures within this framework. They outline strategies for choosing and evaluating appropriate texts, innovative lesson plans that can be used across the curriculum, and new approaches for assessing student's reading needs.

This book is an essential reference for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in reading in the content areas, English education students in methods courses, students in reading and literacy studies, classroom teachers, and teacher educators.

Reade Dornan teaches English education in the Department of English at Michigan State University. She previously taught high school and has worked extensively with gifted and talented middle school students.

Lois Matz Rosen is an associate professor of English at the University of Michigan, Flint, where she is also director of writing programs and codirector of the writing-across-the-curriculum program. A former high school English teacher, she previously served as codirector of the Southeast Michigan Writing Project and director of the Flint Area Writing Project.

Marilyn Wilson is an associate professor of English at Michigan State University and is currently the associate chair for undergraduate programs. She is a past president of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English and has taught both middle and high school English.