Bob Algozzine - Basic Early Literacy Skills: Strategies and Lessons for Improving

To the millions of children who after one, two, three, or four years in school still are not reading proficiently... we share your pain and hope for a better future.

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright 2008 by Corwin Press

First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2012

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-61608-584-1

Printed in Canada

C ollectively we are grateful to administrators, teachers, and children in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, especially Idlewild Elementary, Montclaire Elementary, Piney Grove Elementary, and Winterfield Elementary, for continuing support of our efforts to identify, practice, and assess effective early literacy instruction and for providing outstanding evidence that good teaching works. We are also thankful for the interest and support of Kathleen McLane and our Corwin team in preparing this book. Individually, we acknowledge others below:

Bob Algozzine is grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Beth, Tina, and Emme on this book and thankful for the great professionalism, friendship, and teaching they shared while doing it and other collaborative projects. He is also thankful for his family who daily remind him of the wonders, benefits, and enduring joys of fatherhood.

Mary Beth Marr thanks Bob for his wisdom and ability to see promise and possibilities in todays challenging classrooms. She thanks Tina and Emme for their commitment to this project and instructional expertise essential to the development of these lessons. Finally, she thanks her family for their love and support.

Tina McClanahan is blessed beyond measure both professionally and personally. She is thankful for the opportunity to have collaborated with Bob, Beth, and Emme and for the patience and support of her family as she worked on this project.

Emme Barnes is thankful for the opportunity to have worked with Bob, Beth, and Tina on this book. Their commitment to early literacy instruction for all children is a model for others to follow. She is also grateful to her parents and husband for their love, support, and guidance. She sends special thanks to her wonderful children Emma Grace and Mac, who are her constant sunshines.

Corwin Press would like to extend additional thanks to the following for their contributions to the book:

Jessie Fries-Kraemer

Teacher, Fifth Grade and Literacy

Eubank Elementary School

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Jill Denson

First Grade, Literacy

Bryan Elementary School

Omaha, Nebraska

Meg L. Miller

Literacy Specialist

Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School

Urbana, Illinois

Tanya Phaturos

Reading Specialist

Park Elementary School

Holbrook, Arizona

Wanda Mangum

K12 Language Arts Instructional Coach

Gwinnett County Public School

Gwinnett, Georgia

Bob Algozzine, PhD, is professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina and co-project director of the U.S. Department of Educationsupported Behavior and Reading Improvement Center. With 25 years of research experience and extensive firsthand knowledge of teaching students classified as seriously emotionally disturbed (and other equally useless terms), Algozzine is a uniquely qualified staff developer, conference speaker, and teacher of behavior management and effective teaching courses.

As an active partner and collaborator with professionals in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina and as an editor of several journals focused on special education, Algozzine keeps his finger on the pulse of current special education practice. He has written more than 250 manuscripts on special education topics, authoring many popular books and textbooks on how to manage emotional and social behavior problems. Through Strategies and Lessons for Improving Basic Early Literacy Skills, Algozzine hopes to continue to help improve the lives of students with special needsand the professionals who teach them.

Mary Beth Marr is an Associate Professor in Education at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in literacy education. The Strategies and Lessons for Improving Basic Early Literacy Skills text was completed during her appointment as a Research Associate with the Behavior and Reading Improvement Center at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Marrs research interests focus on early literacy and struggling readers.

Tina McClanahan has worked for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) system since her graduation from West Virginia State College. During her time with CMS, she has held the positions of classroom teacher, literacy teacher, Reading Recovery teacher, and K2 Literacy Facilitator, and is currently a PreK Literacy Facilitator. She also worked for the Behavior and Reading Improvement Center, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, as a Center Support Coordinating teacher and received National Board status in 2001 as an Early Childhood Generalist (ECGEN). She resides in Matthews, North Carolina, with her husband and two daughters.

Emme Barnes is currently a literacy facilitator in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system working with teachers, students, and parents to develop literacy skills in elementary-age students. She has taught first and second grade classes in Title One, large suburban schools, and at The American School of Madrid. Her formal education includes a BS in Elementary Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Master of Education degree in Reading, Language, and Literacy from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is on the Advisory Board for Reach Out and Read Charlotte and is a past recipient of the Ten Outstanding Young Charlotteans Award given by the Charlotte Jaycees for her work with literacy in the community.

While there are no easy answers or quick solutions for optimizing reading achievement, an extensive knowledge base now exists to show us the skills children must learn in order to read well. These skills provide the basis for sound curriculum decisions and instructional approaches that can help prevent the predictable consequences of early reading failure