Reading Development

This is a rich resource for assessing and teaching reading. It lays out a developmental continuum of reading behaviors starting at birth and continuing through the fully mature and developed adult reader. The Continuum is organized into three major components: Engagement, Comprehension, and Language-to-Print. Each component is broken down into several major categories of reading behaviors. The Continuum is divided into seven phases of development, from the Pre-Verbal through the Flexible Phase. Each phase has a set of fully defined sub-categories of behaviors appropriate to that level framed as questions so that the Continuum becomes a functional assessment tool. (e.g., "Does the reader word-match with steady fluency, phrase-chunking appropriately?") As such, it allows teachers to plan for differentiated instruction that pinpoints specific learning needs. Every behavior is accompanied by a set of suggested instructional strategies for helping the learner become competent with that behavior. Hundreds of engaging trade books of all genres are included in the teacher-tried activities, thereby freeing educators from over reliance on basal reading programs that don't always meet the needs of all learners. Volume 1 focuses on pre-reading and early reading development, covering Pre-Verbal, Pre-Print, Emergent, and Print-Focused Phases. Volume 2 focuses on the Print-Focused, Consolidation, Silent, and Flexible Phases. Both volumes include the Introduction and Overview chapters and a copy of the full Continuum. Literacy standards can be met through using strategies in this resource to support learners. This resource is appropriate for all educators interested in supporting reading development: regular, special, and ELL teachers at all levels, teacher educators and teacher trainees, reading specialists and resource personnel, parents, home-schoolers, Montessori educators, administrators, and district reading supervisors. It allows schools as well as individual teachers and home-schooling parents to customize their plans to meet the needs of the learners in their care.