Reading Process and Practice

Authoritative. Comprehensive. Definitive.

Reading Process and Practice, since its original publication in 1988, has helped countless preservice and practicing teachers better understand the reading process and translate it into classroom practice―so much so that the book has become the essential guide for teachers. Now, internationally recognized researcher and educator Constance Weaver has thoroughly updated her book. Clarifying theory with explanations and examples, as always, Weaver incorporates especially timely information―accurate data, informed critique, and results of often-ignored research―to help teachers counteract government and corporate intrusion into classrooms. Effective instruction stems from a sensitive, informed response to students' needs; the aim of this book is to help teachers achieve that goal.

To that end, Weaver has written five new chapters on assessing and helping readers―enough information to do miscue analysis successfully, to develop a reader profile, and to carry out instructional support for individual readers. To make the book accessible to both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to new and veteran teachers, she has included definitions and concepts that are repeated throughout the book to provide multiple entry points into key understandings and issues. A new chapter describes what a comprehensive literacy program might include and how it might be structured, while practical chapters flesh out specific components of such a program. Finally, the book is designed so that teachers and teacher educators can cluster chapters in alternative orderings, depending upon the literacy programs in which they teach or the nature of the courses they are teaching.

And there's another new and special addition. An associated website contains an extensive bibliography compiled and annotated by first-grade teacher Catherine Compton-Lilly. Numerous sections cover topics that range from being a teacher, choosing books for children, and working with parents to teaching reading in elementary, middle, and high school. Purchasers of the book can download this information-and more-for free at www.heinemann.com/weaver.

For more than three decades, Constance Weaver was one of the field’s leading voices on literacy topics ranging from the reading process to grammar instruction with writing. Reading Process & Practice first appeared in 1988 and became widely known as the most authoritative, comprehensive, and definitive book of its kind. It helped teachers define reading in ways that support high-quality instruction. Connie once again led the way with the 1996 publication of the bestselling Teaching Grammar in Context and its companion Lessons to Share on Teaching Grammar in Context. Then she expanded and deepened her insights and specific teaching ideas in The Grammar Plan Book and Grammar to Enrich and Enhance Writing. In 1996, the Michigan Council of Teachers of English honored Weaver with the Charles C. Fries award for outstanding leadership in the profession. Connie was the Heckert Professor of Reading and Writing at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and Professor Emerita of English at Western Michigan University. She passed away in July of 2018.