When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teachers 6-12 (Paperback)

by Kylene Beers (Author) "I approach writing this book with fear and conviction..." (more)
Key Phrases: anticipation guide, text features, aesthetic response, Kylene Beers, Say Something, Probable Passage (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“If I had to recommend just one book to middle and secondary teachers working to support struggling readers, this would have to be the book. When Kids Cant Read, What Teachers Can Do is a comprehensive handbook filled with practical strategies that teachers of all subjects can use to make reading skills transparent and accessible to adolescents. Blending theory with practice throughout, Kylene Beers moves teachers from assessment to instruction from describing dependent reading behaviours to suggesting ways to help students with vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, word recognition, response to text, and so much more. But its not just the strategies that make this book so valuable. Its the invitations to step inside a classroom and eavesdrop on teacher/student interactions. Its the student profiles, the if/then charts, the extensive booklists and, of course, the experiences of a brilliant reading teacher. This is simply the best book published to date to support struggling adolescent readers!”–Gillda Leitenberg,District-wide Coordinator, English/LiteracyToronto District School Board

Product Description
For Kylene Beers, the question of what to do when kids can't read surfaced abruptly in 1979 when she began teaching. That year, she discovered that some of the students in her seventh-grade language arts classes could pronounce all the words, but couldn't make any sense of the text.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann (October 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0867095199
• ISBN-13: 978-0867095197
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,509 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #3 in	Books > Nonfiction > Education > Literacy
  #3 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Education > By Level > Middle School
  #5 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Books & Reading > Literacy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a winner! Every MS and HS teachers needs to read it, December 18, 2002

By	R. ebook Writing G. Hedrick "byte me with an ... (Reno, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Passion. Voice. Soul. Reality. This book has all of this and more. It has substance. I wish I had been given this book when i was teaching Middle School and High School. I wish I had known then what I have now learned, now that I am a retired teacher after 37 years of teaching.

This is a book that makes sense in all its many pages, as to what teachers can and ought to do, WHEN KIDS CAN'T READ. I loved the idea that 'it's okay to reread a book!' duh. (Why didn't I think of that?) I loved 'think alouds'. I loved 'say something'. I loved all the methods given because I know they work--she presents the word for word classroom dialogue to show how they work.

Here is a book that reaches out and touches you, no, more, it reaches out and grabs you by the eyeballs to look, to look again; to read, and read again; to model the methods and model them again.

Am I being paid for this to say this? No! Do I even know Kylene Beers? no. Do I love this book and think it is a savior to poor adolescent readers everywhere? A resounding YES !!!

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a book to drive a retired teacher back into teaching, December 18, 2002

By A Customer

This isn't just revolutionary; it's revelationary. This is a book to make any teacher who has ever taught from 6 th grade on up have hope once more. It arms you with weapons of mass instruction, specific mass instruction. It brings a reader to the land of read and reread, much as the writing project brought the writer into the land of rewrite. So many techniques, so many strategies, so many ok methods that beguile the mind and break the heart of the retired teacher: 'where were you when I needed you'??????

One of the reasons I floated slowly downward in the grade levels the longer I taught was the diversity of reading levels. Had I known that it's okay to reread, to real aloud, to think aloud, to say something aloud about what you are reading, I might still be teaching.

Kylene's book is full of devotion and passion and subtle but strong excitement: there is hope for the adolescent reader, the dependent reader, the below grade level reader. There is hope.

Read Kylene's book and share the hope!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do, June 26, 2004

By	Lisa Omark (Woodbridge, CT United States) - See all my reviews

One day, while at a bookstore, I was looking for a resource book that could help me with our strugging sixth, seventh, and eighth grade readers. In my hands, I held two books and planned to buy one. One book was "When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do" written by Kylene Beers. I honestly don't remember the name of the other book for, I as looked through the two, it was clear which would be the more useful. I bought Kylene's book and have never looked back! Kylene explains a variety of reading strategies to help readers make meaning of text before they read, as they read, and after they read. Her ideas on vocabulary instruction are some of the most useful I have ever encountered. Kylene addresses how struggling readers also have difficulty with spelling and gives us concrete suggestions to help our readers improve their spelling skills. "Sound it out" does not often work for the struggling reader; a chapter on word recognition is very helpul. Most importantly, Kylene addresses the need for us to create confidence in our struggling readers and she offers suggestions as to how teachers can do this. When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do is one of the best resources I have found in my thirty years of teaching. I have used this book daily and our students are the beneficiaries. They are becoming life-long readers!