Julia B. Lindsey talks about her new book Reading Above the Fray– An interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito
For those of you who are looking for a professional development book that gives you research-based routines for developing decoding skills, I think you will really like Julie B. Lindsey’s new book Reading Above the Fray. It’s a nuts-and-bolts kind of a book, written by a teacher for teachers. As you can see from her bio below- Julie began as a Kg-1 teacher. Subsequently, she worked on advanced degrees. Her work cumulated in a Ph.D. Her doctoral chair was Nell Duke (who provided an excellent foreword for the book). The book is part of Scholastic’s collection of books around the topic of Science of Reading. Links to her book and additional information about Julia now follow.
LINK TO THE BOOK (Scholastic Website) LINK
ABOUT THE BOOK (taken from the Scholastic Website)
Dr. Julia B. Lindsey’s evidence-based routines help young readers decode words efficiently so they can spend more energy on comprehending-and enjoying-what they read! You’ll find:
1. Need-to-know essentials of how kids learn to read.
2. Principles of high-quality foundational skills instruction.
3. Teacher-approved instructional “swaps” to improve early reading instruction.
Dr. Lindsey addresses content learning, culturally responsive practices, and the importance of engaging readers from the start.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Julia B. Lindsey, Ph.D., a former kindergarten and first-grade teacher and self-proclaimed “phonics nerd,” works with teachers, district personnel, curriculum developers, and nonprofit groups to translate foundational reading research into practice. While completing her doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, she developed a free decodables book program in collaboration with Boston Public Schools. She is the author of Reading Above the Fray: Reliable, Research-Based Routines for Developing Decoding Skills..
Here is the YouTube podcast of the interview:
Here is the interview discussion. Topics are time stamped:
I hope you found the interview as informative as I did. Here are the book excerpts that Julia referred to in the interview:
Chart from page 40 (Question 2)
Chart from Page 133 (Question 4)
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT JULIA B. LINDSEY’S WEBSITE-
BEYOND DECODABLES
(You can download free books- rich in meaning & geared to teach specific decoding skills)
Dr. Sam’s Upcoming Summer Blogs- In the next few weeks, I am continuing to arrange for additional interviews with authors of some of the many professional books that have been published lately. I’m planning to talk to Tim Rasinski, among others. I hope to carry out those interviews before the new school year begins. Also, near the end of summer, I hope to talk to you about my plans for my push-ins this fall at the school where I serve as a pro bono reading consultant in grades K-3. I’ll be teaching two full days a week, doing large group, small group, and individual sessions. I hope that talking about what I’ll be doing will allow readers to see how I adapt my instruction to the many ideas I’ve gotten from my lifelong search for common ground and common sense. In the meantime:
Happy Reading and Writing.
Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to inform his teaching