Customer Reviews

Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a great book but I think its better for teachers of third grade and higher. This is like third, fourth, fifth grade version. "Reading With Meaning" is better for K, first, and second grade teachers. Its great as a part of a series.

This book is a gem. It is written in a graceful and readable style. The authors fill the book with examples that illustrate keys to improving reading comprehension, apt books, stories or readings that reinforce the point, teacher-student communications and examples of teacher-student work. For anyone involved in teaching reading comprehension or tutoring students with reading difficulties, it is an invaluable resource.

The newer edition of this book is wonderful. It is packed with useful information that every teacher can apply to their reading instruction. I found the text easy to read, the recommendations are practical, and this book is a wonderful companion text to "The Comprehension Toolkit".

This is an amazing book if you've always wondered what strategies and thinking (and not specific skills that will soon be forgotten) to teach whole group in reading. I've used this in my 2nd year of teaching, but my colleagues in their 10th and 20th years of teaching love it too. The authors give specific lessons to teach THINKING strategies: metacognition, making connections, visualizing, questioning, inferring, determining important info, and synthesizing and summarizing.
This book is great but will be even better if paired with this book (which isn't packaged with the "Buy Together" from Amazon) Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading. S. Harvey, one of the authors of Strategies that Work, writes the foreword. This book discusses the lessons you teach before teaching each of the strategies Harvey, et al. covers (i.e. schema) by using concrete experiences to help students understand and NOT forget what schema is (i.e. using a lint roller and pieces of paper with your experiences, opinions, feelings, memories. Use the lint roller to stick everything together and this represents your unique schema.) After giving students several "sensory" experiences with the strategy, you then teach lessons from Strategies that Work with the concrete experiences in place. She gives examples of using songs, art, wordless picture books for sensory experiences and basically hits different intelligences. My students are definitely thinking more, but I think they would have retained more if they would have had these concrete experiences first. This is a glowing review for both books :)

This book is absolutely wonderful. The ideas are fantastic, it breaks it down and gives you examples of how to use the strategies! This helps the new teacher and the teacher that wants to re-vamp their strategies. I definetely recommend this book to EVERY teacher. It's also a great addition to a professional development library.

This book sums up a lot of key elements of literacy education. The strategies in it will surely broaden your students' classroom experience and hopefully develop lifelong learners.

Strategies That Work 2nd Edition is a terrific resource for teaching comprehension. Based on a body of research on reading comprehension, the authors help teachers translate research into classroom practice with over 60 comprehension strategy lessons to help kids learn, understand and remember what they read. Four new chapters in the final section of the book focus on reading and understanding across the curriculum, in science, social studies, text books and even test reading! The authors feature kids work throughout the book, and show how they assess comprehension which is very helpful. I recommend this book without reservation.

Thanks Stephanie for another practical teachers' book. New strategies are very specific and ideas on wht to look for (like a kid with too many but vague ideas) was on target.

Mrs Wasneski
Special educator
Grand Junction Colorado

This is a must have book for educators and clinicians who want to provide therapeutic reading interventions for children. The book provides practical techniques for helping students develop their own comprehension strategies. While many teachers are now adopting strategy use, it has been a somewhat neglected area of instruction in the past. I would recommend this book for seasoned professionals and novice students or professionals who are early in their careers.

In graduate school, my professor said that this is one of the most important books on literacy. SHE WAS SO RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! A must-read for reading specialists and classroom teachers!