On Solid Ground: Strategies for Teaching Reading K-3

Enter Sharon Taberski’s classroom and enter a world where children take pride, take risks, and most of all, take reading seriously. It’s not utopia by any means; Sharon deals with the same issues other teachers face: limited resources, tremendous diversity, and the constant threat of overcrowding. What makes her exceptional is her clear vision. She is systematic in her thinking, wise in her decision making. Most of all, she understands her role as a teacher and goals for each student. This is why Sharon is on solid ground.

In her book, Sharon shares what she’s gained in her twenty years of working with children and teachers. It’s organized not around a set of prescribed skills, but around a series of interconnected interactions with the learner:

• Assessment: Sharon begins by describing her procedures for assessing children’s reading and then using what she finds to inform her work. She covers scheduling and managing reading conferences, taking oral-reading records, and using retellings and discussions as tools.
• Demonstration: Once she has identified strengths and needs, Sharon demonstrates strategies to help her students become better readers. In this section, she explains how she uses shared reading and read aloud as platforms for figuring out words and comprehending texts, and explores small-group work—guided reading and word-study groups—and teaching children one on one.
• Practice: Here, Sharon describes how she uses independent reading as a time for practice, spelling out the very active roles she and her students play. She also devotes a complete chapter to matching children with books for independent reading.
• Response: It’s important for students to know they’re doing well and where they must concentrate their efforts. Sharon explains how her students use writing and dialogue as tools to better understanding themselves as readers.

On Solid Ground is informed by current thinking, yet loaded with advice, booklists, ready-to-use reproducibles, and—of course—the words and work of real children. Sharon’s approach is clear, sensible, timeless. You’ll turn to her book throughout your career.

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.

Shelley Harwayne was affiliated with the New York City public schools for more than thirty years as a teacher, staff developer, codirector of the Teachers College Writing Project, founding principal of the Manhattan New School, and superintendent of District #2 in New York City. She has worked as a consultant and keynote speaker throughout the world and has published numerous books and videos with Heinemann including Learning to Confer (2004), Writing Through Childhood (2001), Lifetime Guarantees (2000), Going Public (1999), Lasting Impressions (1992), Living Between the Lines (1990), and The Writing Workshop: a World of Difference (1987). In addition, Shelley has published two children's books: Jewels and What's Cooking?.