Teaching Word Recognition: Effective Strategies for Students with Learning Difficulties (What Works for Special-Needs Learners)

This highly regarded teacher resource synthesizes the research base on word recognition and translates it into step-by-step instructional strategies, with special attention to students who are struggling. Chapters follow the stages through which students progress as they work toward skilled reading of words. Presented are practical, evidence-based techniques and activities that target letter- sound pairings, decoding and blending, sight words, multisyllabic words, and fluency. Ideal for use in primary-grade classrooms, the book also offers specific guidance for working with older children who are having difficulties. Reproducible assessment tools and word lists can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.

New to This Edition

• Incorporates the latest research on word recognition and its connections to vocabulary, reading fluency, and comprehension.
• Chapter on morphological (meaning-based) instruction.
• Chapter on English language learners.
• Instructive "Try This" activities at the end of each chapter for teacher study groups and professional development.

Rollanda E. O'Connor, PhD, is Professor and Eady/Hendrick Endowed Chair in Learning Disabilities in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. She taught reading in special and general education classrooms for many years. Dr. O'Connor has conducted numerous reading intervention studies in general and special education settings, examined procedures to predict the students most likely to develop reading disabilities, and followed the reading progress of students who have received early intervention. Her longitudinal studies of intervention and assessment led to the development of Ladders to Literacy, a collection of phonological and print awareness activities and scaffolding suggestions for children at risk for reading problems, and the Handbook of Reading Interventions,which describes evidence-based interventions for struggling readers in grades PreK–12. Her current research includes exploring the effects of early, continuous intervention across the first 4 years of reading development and developing research-based interventions for students with reading difficulties in the intermediate and middle school grades.