Reading and Teaching

Reading and Teaching raises questions and provides a context for preservice and practicing teachers to understand and to reflect on the complex issues surrounding the teaching of reading in the schools. It presents real teachers in their classrooms, dialogues about that teaching, and exercises for further clarification. The purpose is to help teachers make informed choices about their teaching of reading. The text considers the different types of decisions teachers might make in the teaching of reading and the knowledge upon which they rely in making those decisions—not simply factual information about using certain materials and methods to teach reading, but also knowledge about the mind, the political climate, the broader social and cultural circumstances of their students and schools and the communities in which they teach.

Reading and Teaching is designed to engage teachers in beginning to evolve their own practical theories, to help them explore and perhaps modify some basic beliefs and assumptions, and to become acquainted with other points of view. Readers are encouraged to interact with the text and to develop their own perspective on the teaching of reading. This is the fifth volume in Reflective Teaching and the Social Conditions of Schooling: A Series for Prospective and Practicing Teachers, edited by Daniel P. Liston and Kenneth M. Zeichner. It follows the same format as previous volumes in the series.

*Part I includes four real-life cases of teachers’ experiences in the classroom: “Teaching Reading Via Direct Systematic Instruction”; “A New Teacher Learns About Teaching Reading and Culture”; “A Teacher-Constructed Whole Language Program”; and “Critical Literacy in an Urban Middle School.” Each case is followed by space for readers to write their own reactions and reflections, educators’ dialogue about the case, space for readers’ reactions to the educators’ dialogue, and a summary and additional questions.
*Part II presents three public arguments representing different views about the teaching of reading: direct instruction, whole language, and critical literacy.
*Part III offers the authors’ own interpretations of the issues raised throughout the text and some suggestions for further reflection. A list of resources is provided.

This text is pertinent for all prospective and practicing teachers at any stage in their teaching careers. It can be used in any undergraduate or graduate course that addresses the teaching of reading.