Understanding Reading Problems : Assessment and Instruction

This market-leading text has been heavily revised while maintaining its focus on struggling readers and emphasizing classroom-based, teacher-driven approaches to assessment and remediation. Understanding Reading Problems, 6/e, integrates authentic vignettes and case studies and clear, vivid writing with the latest research. Expanded coverage of portfolio assessment, lexiles and guided reading levels, running records and other informal observation procedures, developmental spelling stages, emergent literacy assessments, assessing and teaching students with limited English proficiency, and practical strategies for adapting instruction for special-needs students in inclusion classrooms make the 6th edition the foremost text in its field.

What makes the Sixth Edition the foremost text in its field?

• Expanded coverage of portfolio assessment.
• Lexiles and guided reading levels.
• Running records and other informal observation procedures.
• Developmental spelling stages.
• Emergent literacy assessments.
• Assessing and teaching students with limited English proficiency.
• Practical strategies for adapting instruction for special-needs students in inclusion classrooms.

“The way most of the strategies are presented is what distinguishes this text from others. This text allows the instructor to briefly teach students how to diagnose and improve the students' understanding of text.”
Professor Olivia N. Saracho
University of Maryland

“As we are an inner-city university with a highly diverse student population that will be teaching in highly diverse public schools, the new chapter on teaching reading and writing to English Learners is a great addition! ”
Professor Donna S. Woods-Stellman
University of Houston-Downtown

New to This Edition

• Revised chapter on teaching reading and writing with English language learners by expert in bilingual and multilingual classrooms, Alan Crawford (Ch. 10).
• New discussion of special education legislation a new section on developing individualized interventions for special-needs students, and a new section on adapted instruction for special-needs students in inclusive classrooms will help students provide effective instruction for special-needs students in regular classrooms (Ch. 11).
• Balanced appraisal of the phonics vs. whole language debate in beginning reading.
• Discussion of U.S. Department of Education's No Child Left Behind legislation, including so-called “evidence-based” methods for teaching reading.
• Re-examination of the concept of specific reading disabilities, which brings far more children into the fold of readers following normal learning processes.
• New discussion of assessing text difficulty and reading comprehension now includes lexiles and guided reading levels, with examples of texts at various difficulty levels (Ch. 2) helps readers understand most current measures of text difficulty and match texts and readers.
• Discussion of state-mandated standards and assessments, with examples of state standards, benchmarks, and rubrics helps readers understand statewide standards movement and development of standards and assessments.
• Expanded and updated discussion of developmental spelling stages and typical strategies of young spellers, with a diagnostic spelling inventory classroom students can use to determine spellers' current developmental stage, helps students understand spelling development and its relationship to phonemic awareness and word recognition.
• Assessment icons throughout the book bring short, important generalizations or statements about assessment to the reader's attention.
• New Glossary of key assessment terms helps readers understand and interpret assessment terms and specialized vocabulary (Appendix).