Chapter 1: Reading Achievement and Instruction in U.S. Schools Chapter 2: What Really Matters: Kids Need to Read a Lot Chapter 3: Kids Need Books They Can Read Chapter 4: Kids Need to Learn to Read Fluently Chapter 5: Kids Need to Develop Thoughtful Literacy Chapter 6: Where to Begin: Instruction for Struggling Readers

Richard L. Allington What Really Matters for Struggling Readers, Third Edition     Nationally recognized scholar and author Richard Allington once again delivers a concise and balanced introduction to reading remediation and intervention programs, showing teachers how to use a variety of best practices with children who are struggling readers in order to transform them into proficient readers. This new edition includes the latest findings on reading achievement and instruction, reading volume as it relates to reading proficiency, reader-text match, fluency development, comprehension strategies, and instruction for struggling readers. Its emphasis is on explaining what the research says, why it works, and how to use this information to provide intensive, expert reading instruction for all children. The continued focus on helping teachers design reading remediation and intervention programs around well-established reality and research-based components is framed within the confines of the No Child Left Behind Act. Paired with Dick's book What Really Matters in Response to Intervention, educators have the best tools for helping every student learn to love reading.   In their well-known and much welcomed thought-provoking style, Pat Cunningham, Dick Allington, and others bring you the best research-based instructional advice available. Each of the brief and inexpensive books in the What Really Matters series features what Pat and Dick know about one aspect of teaching and learning to read independently with understanding. To learn more about the series see the inside front cover.       “This is an accessible, readable, and engaging affirmation for practicing teachers, reminding them of their importance in literacy programs and offering ideas for their continued growth and ever-developing repertoire of effective strategies and approaches...I commend Allington for this faith in teachers as decision-makers.” - Denise H. Stuart, Ph.D., The University of Akron, Curricular and Instructional Studies, Akron OH     “A strength of using Allington’s book is reading friendliness.  As I read his book, I felt like I was having a conversation with him.”  - Dr. Stacey Leftwich, Rowan University, Department of Reading, Glassboro, NJ     Richard L. Allington is a past president of the International Reading Association and of the National Reading Conference. He has written more than 100 published papers and reports on reading difficulties, and is the author or coauthor of What Really Matters in Response to Intervention, What Really Matters in Fluency, Classrooms That Work, and Schools That Work. Dick is a former classroom teacher, reading specialist, and federal programs director who has studied and written about reading intervention including his influential article in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, “If They Don’t Read Much, How They Ever Gonna Get Good?”  

A strength of using Allington’s book is reading friendliness.  As I read his book, I felt like I was having a conversation with him.    - Dr. Stacey Leftwich, Rowan University, Department of Reading, Glassboro, NJ     This book beautifully frames the beliefs that guide practice in working with struggling readers and overall all readers.   This is an accessible, readable, and engaging affirmation for practicing teachers, reminding them of their importance in literacy programs and offering ideas for their continued growth and ever-developing repertoire of effective strategies and approaches.   I commend Allington for this faith in teachers as decision-makers.  - Denise H. Stuart, Ph.D., The University of Akron, Curricular and Instructional Studies, Akron OH       Dear Dr. Allington,   I have just finished reading your book What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs. I have been quoting you for the past couple of weeks during which I have been reading your book. It is such a helpful book! Here are my favourite parts:   1.       The general guideline (I believe it was from NY) that children read and respond to 25+ books per year. 2.       The advice to calculate the percentage of reading accuracy. 3.       The suggestion of having 500 - 1500 books in a classroom roughly half and half fiction and non-fiction. Half at reading level and half below. I am busy counting my books. What wonderful guidelines!! While I often read about general targets, there is something about these numbers that is giving me a specific initial target (very motivating!)    - Ingrid Veilleux, Adjunct Teaching Professor, University of British Columbia; Learning Assistance Teacher, Brighouse Elementary, Richmond, BC  

Includes more findings from the federal Reading First initiative—and updated reports on reading achievement in U.S. Schools. Updates the topic of reading volume—to explain how reading volume predicts reading proficiency.   Emphasizes the importance of reader-text match—and reveals why struggling readers need large amounts of high-success reading and why it is a critical aspect of lesson planning. Offers a stronger chapter on fluency—and discusses why expanding reading volume works even better than repeated reading in fluency development. Examines how to use vocabulary development and literate conversations—as a means of fostering comprehension growth. Explores the federal RtI legislation and the unique opportunity it provides to finally get reading instruction for struggling readers’ right and to eliminate kids labeled LD or struggling readers. Strong focus on what we know and why it is time to use this knowledge and teach every child to read well.