Whether you teach beginning readers in the primary grades or struggling readers at any level, this book provides you with information and strategies for helping your students become independent readers. It goes beyond phonics to include all of the skills readers use to recognize words to get at meaning and shows how the skills work together to build fluency and comprehension. In addition to phonics, the book provides readers with a strong foundation for teaching and assessing structural analysis, context clues (syntactic and semantic), sight words and vocabulary, and supporting skills. You will be able to refer to this book whenever you encounter children with reading difficulties and find specific strategies to help them.

This reader-teacher friendly book features a section on each major word recognition skill that 1). introduces the skill, 2). explains how to teach it, 3). provides strategies for both teachers and students to use to reinforce the skill, and 4). includes ways to assess students’ use of that specific skill.

The short sections and step-by-step strategies make this the perfect handbook/resource as you prepare for or begin and advance in your teaching career.

Monica Kjørstad is Associate Professor in Social Work at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences. Her interests are social administration and planning, leadership and implementation issues connected to social work, welfare and human rights. She holds a PhD in social work and social policy.

May-Britt Solem is Associate Professor in Social Work at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences. She has constructed and now coordinates the Master Program in Family Therapy. Her current research is a longitudinal study of parenting practices and stress and sons' transitions to adulthood. She holds a PhD in psychology.