Teaching Reading to Students Who Are At-Risk or Have Disabilities: A Multi-Tier Approach

New edition includes more direction for teaching older readers, increased coverage of RTI, expanded assessment and spelling coverage as well as content on ELL.   

The public focus on children who struggle with learning to read has never been greater. Bursuck and Damer have done an extraordinary job of answering that exact charge—to help all students succeed at reading—in writing this extraordinary book.Organized according to the Reading First categories of reading development and instruction as presented in the report of the National Reading Panel, the book uses a systematic, explicit, success-oriented approach for teaching struggling readers in today’s accountability-driven schools. Teachers will appreciate the authentic, research-validated reality-based strategies and the accessible language used throughout. All of the strategies presented are research-based, and have been field-tested with at-risk children in both rural and urban teaching settings. Most of the strategies have resulted from the authors’ work in K-3, inner-city schools, working every day with at-risk children, including children of poverty, children for whom English is not their primary language, and children with learning and behavioral disabilities, not just findings from research articles!  The text covers the 5 key elements of reading, delineated in the National Reading Panel Report in order to help teachers learn how to differentiate instruction within each of these areas for a range of learners, using systematic, explicit teaching strategies within a multi-tier RTI framework. Teachers can also rest assure that all of the strategies not only follow the guidelines put forth by the National Reading Panel, but cover the essential areas of phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle (phonics), reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, and are carefully tied to specific assessments, producing a level of accountability that is required of all teachers in today’s schools. Other hallmarks of the book include: all of the strategies benefit English Language Learners; newly added chapter vignettes profile students and their struggles with reading, IEP goals and objectives in reading, and tips for differentiating instruction for each of the featured children; Research to Practice features; Reflective Teacher features, and more.

Dr. Bursuck, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a Professor of Special Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the co-author of the best-selling textbook on inclusive practices, Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Teachers, also published by Pearson. In addition, he has also authored and co-authored over 50 research-based articles on ways to teach students who are at-risk or who have disabilities.

Mary Damer is an educational consultant and co-founder of Multi-Tier, LLC, a consulting company that works with school districts to increase reading achievement through an intensive, multi-tiered model based on preventing reading failure. For over seven years, she has directed her multi-tier reading project in high-poverty, urban schools. A former teacher, principal, and behavior consultant, she is currently a lecturer in special education at The Ohio State University, and the co-author of Managing Unmanageable Students: Practical Solutions for Administrators.