College Reading: The Science and Strategies of Expert Readers - Softcover

Zadina, Janet Nay; Smilkstein, Rita; Daiek, Deborah; Anter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1111350019 ISBN 13: 9781111350017

Publisher: Cengage Learning, 2013

Synopsis

COLLEGE READING: THE SCIENCE AND STRATEGIES OF EXPERT READERS approaches reading from a thinking skills perspective by explaining how we think, learn, and read. This expert group of authors credibly incorporates widely proven brain research and learning theory into a user-friendly dynamic reading textbook aimed at diverse learners. The bridge from the scientific research to the classroom is carefully crafted so that not only will students learn to read more efficiently, but they will also learn how to learn more efficiently. By explaining the brain science of reading, COLLEGE READING empowers students with the knowledge that they can change their brain into a more effective reading brain. COLLEGE READING teaches students how to read by providing interactive learning and reading opportunities--Making Connections, Brain Connections, Activities, Practice with a Reading Passage, Post Test, and Brain Strength Options--so that students are discovering, understanding, and remembering essential reading skills they can apply to their future coursework. All students can be naturally motivated, expert readers and learners with COLLEGE READING. Available with InfoTrac Student Collections http://gocengage.com/infotrac.

About this title

About the Author:

Janet N. Zadina, Ph.D is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Tulane University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology. She is a cognitive neuroscientist and former community college instructor of reading and English. She has conducted award-winning research on the neurobiology of dyslexia. She is an internationally known speaker on brain research and instruction and author of several books and articles in the fields of science and education. Her background as a teacher and reading specialist, along with her neuroimaging of dyslexia experience in the lab, serves her in her passionate devotion to developmental reading students. She sees reading instruction through the eyes of a teacher and a scientist. Because research shows that students who learn about their brain become higher achievers than those who don't, she is passionate about the importance of educating students as well as teachers about the brain. She is the 2011 winner of the Society for Neuroscience Science Educator Award given to "an outstanding neuroscientist who has made a significant impact in informing the public about neuroscience." She is also a CLADEA Fellow, which recognized her lifetime achievement in helping college developmental students. She is a member of Society for Neuroscience, Neurobiology of Language Society, National Association for Developmental Education, and College Reading and Learning Association.

Rita Smilkstein, Ph.D, has spoken nationally and internationally on brain-compatible education and the Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP). She has taught in middle school through graduate school, including 26 years in the Humanities Division at North Seattle Community College. Currently she is Professor Emerita, North Seattle Community College, and invited faculty in Secondary Education at Western Washington University's Woodring College of Education, Everett Campus. She has received many teaching awards, including the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development's Excellence Award, 1991, 1995; the College Reading and Learning Association's highest honor, the Robert Griffin Award, 2005; Induction as a Fellow of the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations, 2006, the highest honor in the field of Developmental Education. Her B.A. was in English at the State University of Iowa; her M.A. in English was at Michigan State University; and her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology was at the University of Washington. Her book We're Born to Learn: Using the Brain's Natural Learning Process to Create Curriculum (Corwin Press, 2003, 2nd ed., 2011) won the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society's Educator's Award of the Year, 2004. A second edition of her book Tools for Writing: Using the Natural Human Learning Process was published by Many Kites Press, 2011. She also frequently gives presentations at national conferences of educational organizations such as the College Reading and Learning Association and the National Association of Developmental Education.

Deborah B. Daiek, Ph.D. serves as the Associate Dean for Learning Support Services, Schoolcraft College, Livonia, Michigan. She oversees the College's Library, Collegiate Skills Reading Department, English as a Second Language courses, the Education Transfer Program, and the Learning Assistance Center (LAC) which houses tutoring, Peer Assisted Learning, Writing Fellows, Student-Athlete Support System, and University Bound. Under her direction, Schoolcraft's LAC was the recipient of the John Champaign Memorial Award for an Outstanding Developmental Education Program. She provides new faculty orientation workshops on ways to engage students in the learning process. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude as well as an MA in Adult Learning, both from Western Michigan University. Additionally she holds a doctorate from Wayne State University in Instructional Technology, with an emphasis on cognition. She is twice the Past President of MDEC, the Michigan Chapter of NADE, and remains actively involved. In 1998 she was given the Outstanding Developmental Educator Award. She is a member of NADE and CRLA as well. She co-chaired NADE's Brain Compatible Education SPIN, and received NADE's Administrator for Outstanding Support of Developmental Education Award. She served as Treasurer and President for the North Central Reading Association (NCRA).

Nancy M. Anter, MAT, MA is an educational consultant and freelance writer with over 20 years of experience in the field of developmental education. She has taught reading and writing at the high school, community college, and university level, and has offered national and local workshops and seminars on learning theory and composition. She coordinated the learning center at Wayne State University. Her work involved instruction for student athletes, ESL students, and the general university population as well as individual students preparing for graduate level exams. Because she witnessed student success at both ends of the academic spectrum, developmental level to graduate level, she understands the importance of starting instruction where students are comfortable and gradually leading them to higher levels. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan and two M.A.s from Wayne State University -- one in English education and the other in English, with an emphasis in composition theory. Her publications include articles in the Learning Assistance Digest and American College Personnel Association. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for Pregnancy Aid and is a member of MDEC, the Michigan chapter of NADE.

Review:

"This is one of the most exciting books I have looked at in a long time. Normally, I choose my books feeling like they will be ok, but not that they will necessarily change my students' lives. I really feel like this book offers so much useful, understandable information, that students will feel like they are getting in on the "secret" of how to succeed in college. It will take some work, but because the activities are engaging and personal, I believe students will enjoy the process."

"I am thrilled that a college reading textbook finally has paired how to learn with the process of reading. It incorporates teaching the student about the brain and how it functions and then applies that to the process of reading. This is something I have tried to do for over twenty years. It's gratifying to find a text that does it so well."

"This text bothers to explain the reasoning (the science) behind how students can become more effective readers while continually assuring students that they have the power to improve their reading based on that reasoning. Most other texts focus on WHY students should become more effective readers and basically issue prescriptions for improved reading without rational."

"In my classes I discuss building dendrites, but this book actually practices this theory in every chapter. I really like the section at the beginning of each chapter where it asks students to draw their dendrites and then at the end of the chapter to now draw their dendrites. This book truly practices and reinforces brain theory. So many students do not have a clear understanding as to how they learn and how important it is to their reading and comprehension. This is truly innovative and relevant to present day college students."

About this edition

• Publisher: Cengage Learning
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1111350019
• ISBN 13: 9781111350017
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 688