Books to help you get off to a good start in your literacy program part two: Readers chime in
One of my twitter followers asked the following question:
Dr. Sam, do you have any books you’d recommend to administrators working in elementary schools on reading instruction? Current ‘reading wars’ have polarized the discussions. Would appreciate any recommendation.
Last week I answered that question with a list of 6 books I thought would make a good starter set. The reader response was overwhelming. Over 1000 educators read last week’s blog. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to do that. That’s not all you did. A number of you also suggested things to read beyond this starter set of books. This week I’m going to share some of those suggestions with you. Perhaps today’s entry could be the start of a summer reading list (or rereading list).
Two books by Ellin Oliver Keene were mentioned. These include:
Engaging Children: Igniting a Drive for Deeper Learning
Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader’s Workshop
Susan Zimmermann was her co-author on Mosaic. I had the privilege of hearing Ellin speak at the NCTE conference in St. Louis. If you want to bring joy back into your reading and writing, if you want your workshop teaching to really matter then these books should be on your must-read list. My guess is many of you already have read them
Another book mentioned by readers was Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst. Ideas from this book can go a long way toward helping teachers create lifelong learners.
Also included was Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child21`. Richard Allington called this book powerful and practical. I must concur. Also, be aware that Miller helped to establish a blog called The Nerdy Book Club. It is a great source for reviews of the latest children’s books and new ideas about the teaching of reading.
Mary Howard came to St. Louis this past year, and my blogging partner Bill Kerns and I got to meet her. She is an amazing educator. Readers mentioned her book RTI From All Sides as another “must read” book.
Two books by Mary Jo Fresh made the list. They were Strategies for Effective Balanced Literacy and 7 Keys to Research for Writing Success, a book co-authored by David Harrison. I had the privilege of hearing them both talk about that book at the NCTE conference in St. Louis. I was so impressed with the book I used it as a resource for the push in work I’m doing with a local 4th-grade teacher.
And finally, one reader highly recommended books and materials by David Kilpatrick. One example is the book Reading Success: A comprehensive, step-by-step program for developing phonemic awareness and fluent word recognition.
Those are the books readers brought up as ones that would be worth reading. By the way, I also found out that two of my readers have written books of their own. Those two books are going on my must-read book list this summer. The first book is They are Smart Kids, Struggling Readers: The Overlooked Factors and Novel Solutions by Nickie Simonetti and Creating Capable Kids, 12 researched based reading programs by Bruce Howlett.
I want to thank all the readers who gave feedback about my “basics” list and to invite all my readers to select a couple of books from this reader created list to add to their own reading list this summer.
Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka- lifelong reader, lifelong learner)
Copyright 2019 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the view of this author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.
P.S. If you found the blog through Facebook or Twitter, please consider following the blog to make sure you won’t miss it. Use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.