Understanding, Assessing, and Teaching Reading: A Diagnostic Approach

Understanding, Assessing, and Teaching Reading is a comprehensive, practical, and easy-to-use text that helps teachers gather assessment data in order to make teaching decisions. The demand is greater than ever for teachers who understand why they do what they do in reading assessment. Good teachers must understand factors that affect reading and also assessment techniques they can use to better understand how these factors affect individual readers. Good teachers also ask questions about each student to help select, administer, and interpret the most appropriate assessments. In addition to building teachers' understanding of the reading assessment process, this text presents a wide variety of reading skills, strategies, and teaching techniques that are appropriate follow-ups to assessments.

The 8th Edition retains the many powerful assessment instruments and techniques that have made the text so widely used. New content includes: a dedicated chapter on assessing and teaching writing (Ch. 13); "bridge" features that emphasize how teachers connect understanding-assessment-instruction; and updated children's literature recommendations.

About our authors

James A. Erekson has been teaching and researching in literacy for over 20 years, with experience in elementary and secondary grades. His work emphasizes the vital role of engagement and motivation in literacy achievement. He is the author of practical texts for educators including Engaging Minds in Social Studies Classrooms: The Surprising Power of Joy (ASCD, 2014) and co-author of Accessible Assessment: How 9 Sensible Techniques Can Power Data-driven Reading Instruction (Heinemann, 2011).

Michael F. Opitz is professor emeritus of reading education from the University of Northern Colorado and has investigated reading assessment and other literacy topics for over 2 decades. He is the author of numerous books, articles and reading programs.

Roland K. Schendel is a former elementary classroom teacher. With 20 years of experience in elementary and secondary education and educational research, he has committed his career to understanding and meeting the learning needs of striving readers and providing professional development to their teachers. He is co-author of 25 Essential Language Arts Strategies to Help Striving Readers Succeed (Scholastic, 2011).