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Explaining Reading

Third Edition
A Resource for Explicit Teaching of the Common Core Standards

Gerald G. Duffy

HardcoverPaperbacke-bookprint + e-book
Hardcover
May 1, 2014
ISBN 9781462515820
Price: $56.00
258 Pages
Size: 6" x 9"
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Paperback
May 13, 2014
ISBN 9781462515561
Price: $37.00
258 Pages
Size: 6" x 9"
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e-book
May 13, 2014
PDF and ePub ?
Price: $37.00
258 Pages
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print + e-book
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258 Pages
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Ideal for Professional Development
Includes Common Core Content

This trusted teacher resource and widely adopted text presents effective ways to demystify essential reading skills and strategies for K–8 students who are struggling. It has been fully revised to focus on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English language arts. Following a concise introduction to the CCSS and explicit teaching, 30 engaging examples show how to be explicit when teaching each Literature, Informational Text, and Foundational Skills standard. Grounded in authentic reading tasks that teachers can adapt for their classrooms, the examples guide teachers to differentiate instruction, model and scaffold learning, assess student skills, and align reading instruction with Common Core writing standards.

New to This Edition

Explaining Reading has continuously been by my side as a resource for classroom lessons that provide the extra help my struggling readers require. The teaching examples feature clear objectives and scaffolding ideas, which I effortlessly adapt to my own lessons. The third edition is invaluable for any teacher striving to meet current standards and promote the value of reading.”

—Terri Christie-Lutes, third-grade teacher, Eastern Elementary School, Traverse City, Michigan


“After using the second edition in my graduate-level reading courses for years, I didn't think it could be improved, but Duffy has outdone himself with this third edition! The book has been reorganized with a timely, relevant focus on applying the Common Core standards. It provides explicit instructional strategies for different text types (literature and informational texts) and text features. This is an invaluable resource for practicing and preservice teachers seeking clarity on how to teach the new standards effectively.”

—Kelly B. Cartwright, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Teacher Preparation, Christopher Newport University


“Duffy has created a vital resource for teachers who want to teach reading concepts explicitly while aligning their instructional practices with the CCSS. The book guides teachers in the kind of thinking that expert teachers do using concrete classroom examples. This third edition is essential reading for preservice, beginning, and veteran teachers, as well as for professional development providers who want to promote adaptive, visionary, and effective reading teachers.”

—Margaret Vaughn, PhD, College of Education, Washington State University


“I have used this book with my elementary preservice teachers in their required reading practicum course. They find it a welcome resource for their professional toolkits. The third edition's well-developed model lessons present the types of scaffolding teachers need to craft lessons based on the CCSS and differentiate instruction for struggling readers.”

—Doris Walker-Dalhouse, PhD, Department of Educational Policy and Leadership, Marquette University


“Duffy offers clear examples and explanations of how to teach students who find reading to be daunting. This practitioner-friendly book is a go-to source for many teachers who want to understand and address the reading difficulties they see in their practice. In the third edition, Duffy succeeds in demonstrating the seamless relationship between the Common Core standards and good reading instruction.”

—Jean Rattigan-Rohr, PhD, Director, Center for Access and Success, Elon University


“Over the last decade, I have consistently used Explaining Reading in my work with preservice and inservice teachers because of its accessibility and its foundation in research-based practice. In the third edition, Duffy aligns literacy concepts, skills, and strategies with the CCSS. Importantly, he does so in a way that empowers teachers to thoughtfully apply instruction that is differentiated based on student need. The book presents principles of effective literacy instruction in a style that is reader friendly and immediately applicable to daily practice. This is a 'must-have' resource for teachers and an ideal text for literacy methods courses.”

—Seth A. Parsons, PhD, College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University


“Duffy is one of the leading figures in reading research, whose groundbreaking work on teaching comprehension was featured in the report of the National Reading Panel. Explaining Reading translates volumes of research into practices that make sense to teacher educators and teachers. The book delivers what the title promises—an explanation of reading that supports both developing readers and teachers in achieving their shared goals. The book is concise (something we all appreciate) and yet embodies the breadth of understanding we have acquired about learning to become an effective reader.”

—James V. Hoffman, PhD, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Texas at Austin

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

1. Five Foundational Principles

2. How Comprehension and Foundational Skills Work

3. Emphasizing Large Ideas as Well as the Nitty-Gritty

4. How to Use Part II of This Book

5. Professional Judgment and Teaching to Standards

II. The Teaching Examples

Examples for Explaining Literature

Example 1. Reading for Key Details (Key Ideas and Details—RL Standard 1)

Example 2. Drawing Inferences (Key Ideas and Details—RL Standard 1)

Example 3. Theme (Key Ideas and Details—RL Standard 2)

Example 4. Character Traits and Motivations (Key Ideas and Details—RL Standard 3)

Example 5. Descriptive Words and Phrases (Craft and Structure—RL Standard 4)

Example 6. Text Types (Craft and Structure—RL Standard 5)

Example 7. Story Structure (Craft and Structure—RL Standard 5)

Example 8. Point of View (Craft and Structure—RL Standard 6)

Example 9. Illustrations and Text Meaning (Integration of Knowledge and Ideas—RL Standard 7)

Example 10. Compare—Contrast (Integration of Knowledge and Ideas—RL Standard 9)

Examples for Explaining Informational Text

Example 11. Main Idea (Key Ideas and Details—RI Standard 2)

Example 12. Making Connections and Establishing Relationships (Key Ideas and Details—RI Standard 3)

Example 13. Word Meaning (Craft and Structure—RI Standard 4)

Example 14. Using Context Clues to Determine Word Meaning (Craft and Structure—RI Standard 4)

Example 15. Text Features (Craft and Structure—RI Standard 5)

Example 16. Text Structure (Craft and Structure—RI Standard 5)

Example 17. Analyzing Positions and Views (Craft and Structure—RI Standard 6)

Example 18. Using Graphic Information (Integrating Knowledge and Ideas—RI Standard 7)

Example 19. Evaluating Supportive Evidence (Integrating Knowledge and Ideas—RI Standard 8)

Example 20. Synthesizing (Integrating Knowledge and Ideas—RI Standard 9)

Examples for Explaining Foundational Skills

Example 21. Front—Back/Left—Right/Top—Bottom (Print Concepts—RF Standard 1)

Example 22. Print Detail (Print Concepts—RF Standard 1)

Example 23. Discriminating among Sounds (Phonological Awareness—RF Standard 2)

Example 24. Letter—Sound Association (Phonics and Word Recognition—RF Standard 3)

Example 25. Vowel Patterns (Phonics and Word Recognition—RF Standard 3)

Example 26. Syllabication (Phonics and Word Recognition—RF Standard 3)

Example 27. Sight-Word Recognition (Phonics and Word Recognition—RF Standard 3)

Example 28. Structural Analysis (Phonics and Word Recognition—RF Standard 3)

Example 29. Reading with Expression (Fluency—RF Standard 4)

Example 30. Quick Recognition of Easily Confused Words (Fluency—RF Standard 4)

Appendix. Research Foundations for This Book


About the Author

Gerald G. Duffy, EdD, is the former William Moran Distinguished Professor of Literacy and Reading at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University. Now retired and living in Deer Park, Washington, he was an elementary and middle school teacher, researcher, and teacher educator for over 50 years. His teaching and research focused on the explicit teaching of reading, on comprehension, and on the development of adaptive teachers. A past president of the National Reading Conference (now the Literacy Research Association) and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame, Dr. Duffy has worked with teachers and children across the United States and overseas. He has written and edited several books on reading instruction and has published over 150 articles and research studies.

Audience

K–8 classroom teachers, reading specialists, and staff developers; teacher educators and advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level students.

Course Use

Serves as a text in Elementary/Middle Grades Reading Methods courses.
Previous editions published by Guilford:

Second Edition, © 2009
ISBN: 9781606230756

First Edition, © 2003
ISBN: 9781572308770
New to this edition: