Explaining Reading: A Resource for Teaching Concepts, Skills, and Strategies [Paperback]

Gerald G. Duffy EdD (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 157230877X | ISBN-13: 978-1572308770 | Publication Date: April 22, 2003 | Edition: 1

Exemplary teacher research has established that explicit teaching plays a vital role in the K-8 classroom, with particular benefits for struggling readers. This book is a practical resource for explaining reading to students who do not learn to read easily. Identified are 22 major skills and strategies associated with vocabulary development, comprehension, word recognition, and fluency. Ways to explain each skill or strategy are illustrated with abundant concrete examples, which teachers can use as starting points for developing lessons tailored to the needs, strengths, and interests of their own students. The book also shows how to move from the teacher's explanation to the student's independent use of new concepts, and how to embed explicit teaching within a context of rich, engaging literacy experiences.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This text is a wonderful resource for teaching preservice (and inservice) teachers how to explicitly model the thought processes necessary for reading skills, from vocabulary building and comprehension strategies to phonemic awareness and fluency. Duffy provides essential background information on the explanation process and then uses specific examples to scaffold preservice teachers’ understanding....In effect, Duffy provides explicit teaching about explicit teaching. The examples he offers are embedded in authentic literacy contexts and provide novice teachers a basis from which to develop their own lessons. Straightforward and engaging, this text is easily accessible for undergraduate and graduate students and an invaluable resource for teacher educators."--Kelly B. Cartwright, PhD, Department of Psychology, Christopher Newport University

"Duffy's book provides thoughtful guidance that is perfect for both novice and experienced teachers. The heart of the book provides sample instructional plans for direct and explicit teaching of vocabulary, comprehension, word recognition, and fluency. Each of these sections is written to provide support for educators who want to try these practices. This book is an excellent resource for college methods classes, helping future educators strategically think about instruction by considering what needs to be taught, what conceptual understandings need to be in place, and how to introduce, model, and scaffold the learning."--Janice V. Kristo, PhD, College of Education and Human Development, University of Maine

"This is a wonderful text for undergraduate- or graduate-level methods students. It provides examples of direct language to be used in the modeling of strategies, helping students see the difference between 'telling' children and 'showing' them. This text facilitates the design of excellent instruction with high-quality literature in any genre."--Sharon Walpole, PhD, School of Education, University of Delaware

"Finally, a book on teaching reading that doesn't just throw around the term 'explicit instruction,' but explains, models, and expands the concept in a way that is meaningful! The insights from Duffy's groundbreaking research on explicit teaching fill the pages of this book. This alone would be cause for recommending it, but there is more. Duffy illustrates how the principle of explicit instruction extends across multiple domains of reading instruction, including phonemic awareness, word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. And, perhaps most important in these times, Duffy's clarity in contrasting explicit instruction to scripted instruction is refreshing. Explicit instruction is totally responsive to the learner and requires a skilled and adaptive teacher. Scripted teaching creates the illusion of explicitness but will always fail because it rests on flawed assumptions regarding the competencies of the teacher and the individual differences among learners. This is an invaluable resource for supporting teacher development."--James V. Hoffman, PhD, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin

"This book has it all! It's a road map for teachers at all levels of experience. The text offers excellent research-based strategies as well as practical and explicit instruction to scaffold learning, and it is all wrapped up in an easy-to-read format. This book is destined to become a classroom classic."--Lorraine De Rosa, MEd, Curriculum Supervisor, Colonial School District, Pennsylvania

"Our K-7 teachers and reading specialists are field testing the lessons of Duffy's book. The lessons empower students to understand the complexity of how reading works, make crucial cognitive connections, and finally 'catch on' to the concepts, skills, and strategies good readers understand and use. Teachers are guided through adapting the explanations to various texts and tasks for learners at all grade levels, and using scaffolding techniques that give students growing levels of responsibility and ownership of new knowledge. Duffy's approach is showing tangible benefits for our struggling readers and fostering a new level of excitement and enthusiasm in our classrooms."--Joyce Carmine, EdD, Principal, Illinois Elementary School, Park Forest, Illinois

"For years now, research has encouraged us to use explanation, modeling, and scaffolding to teach reading, but as all of us who have tried it know, this is no easy task. Duffy provides us with both a research-based rationale and a map for navigating this difficult terrain. He makes the 'why,' 'how,' and 'when' of explicit instruction perfectly clear, yet this is no recipe book. Duffy maintains an abiding belief that teachers are the ultimate and best decision makers, and in these pages, he provides the support to enter into those decisions knowledgeably. An invaluable book for beginning and experienced teachers alike."--Sheila W. Valencia, PhD, University of Washington, Seattle

"As a primary school teacher with over 30 years of experience, I find the format of the book easy to follow, enabling one to find specific examples of how to explain the component parts of reading. I find the explanations for 'Inferring' and 'Main Idea' to be especially helpful....The 'Scaffolded Assistance' examples provide teachers with sensible approaches for differentiated instruction. Explaining Reading will definitely be a valuable resource in my professional reading collection for years to come."--Betsy Hodulik, MA, primary school teacher, Spruce Run School, Clinton, New Jersey

About the Author

Gerald G. Duffy, EdD, is William E. Moran Distinguished Professor in Reading and Literacy at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Previously, he spent 25 years at Michigan State University as a reading educator and researcher in classroom reading instruction. A former classroom teacher, past president of the National Reading Conference, and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame, he has written and edited a number of books on reading instruction. He has published well over 100 articles and research studies on reading strategy instruction and reading teacher effectiveness.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Paperback: 231 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (April 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157230877X
• ISBN-13: 978-1572308770
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,150 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Individual chapters cogently provide examples, October 14, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Explaining Reading: A Resource for Teaching Concepts, Skills, and Strategies (Paperback)

Gerald G. Duffy is a former classroom teacher and professor emeritus at Michigan State University. He draws upon his many years of experience and his considerable expertise in Explaining Reading: A Resource For Teaching Concepts, Skills, And Strategies to provide the reader with a solid guide for aiding in their teaching literacy to students who are slow to absorb the skill. Individual chapters cogently provide examples and ideas for explaining vocabulary, teaching word recognition, comprehension strategies, and a great deal more. Explaining Reading is highly recommended as an excellent and detailed advice guide -- especially for classroom teachers and home schoolers involved in a literacy instructional program.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource for Literacy Coaches, May 3, 2005

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IST Kelly (Bel Air, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Explaining Reading: A Resource for Teaching Concepts, Skills, and Strategies (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book to use while working with teachers in your building. Use it as a resource for yourself or share it with teachers to support what you are saying or modeling in their classrooms. After you have identified the strategy or skill the students are having trouble with, locate the skill in the index. Then read through the pages as Dr. Duffy describes the conceptual understanding that must be in place for the students to learn the skill. He also outlines how to introduce the skill, model the thinking, scaffold towards independence, apply it in reading and writing, and determine how to know if the lesson was successful. Some topic categories are vocabulary, comprehension strategies, word recognition, and fluency.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Analytical explanation of reading, January 3, 2007

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Hope Corizzo (Leavenworth, Kansas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Explaining Reading: A Resource for Teaching Concepts, Skills, and Strategies (Paperback)

I am a tutor for third and fourth graders (employed by the school) and have found this book to be priceless in explaining the strategies of reading to 8, 9 and ten year olds - my target audience. The book is structured well and offers many examples of how to help struggling readers learn the "secrets" of good readers. After looking at several other 'Reading Comprehension' books, I chose this one based on the TOC and the foreward. It has proven to REALLY help me clarify each objective and teach the invisible process of active reading to my students. I'm very excited about the book and what it has to offer. Thanks!