What Principals Need to Know about Teaching and Learning Reading (2nd Edition)

Principals will discover practical strategies for strengthening and improving reading programs using the foundation established by the authors’ six truths of reading instruction. Explore comprehensive, multifaceted instruction techniques, as well as additional steps you can take to support students directly. Identify and troubleshoot problems your teachers may face, and gain valuable approaches to topics such as reading comprehension, vocabulary and literacy, and phonics and fluency.

Patricia M. Cunningham, PhD, is a professor of education at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After graduating from the University of Rhode Island, she taught first and fourth grades and remedial reading in elementary grades in Florida and Indiana. After teaching at Ohio University and serving as director of reading for Alamance County Schools (North Carolina), she went to Wake Forest University to direct the Elementary Education program. Pat is the author of Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing, currently in its sixth edition. Along with Richard Allington, she published Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write and Schools That Work: Where All Children Read and Write.

James W. Cunningham, PhD, is emeritus professor of literacy studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jim has over 100 publications, including books, book chapters, research articles, professional articles, and scholarly reviews. He has spoken at many national and international conferences. He has taught at the elementary and secondary levels and served as a consultant with schools, districts, and other education agencies in twenty-five states. In 2010, Jim was selected as a member of the Text Complexity Committee for the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts. He is a member of the Reading Hall of Fame.

Pat and Jim met in graduate school at the University of Georgia. In 1977, along with Sharon Arthur Moore, they published their first book: Classroom Reading Instruction, K 5: Alternative Approaches. Both Pat and Jim have always been passionate about teaching all children to read and finding alternative ways to teach children for whom learning to read is difficult.