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"This is just the type of book that the reading field needs right now. . . . I wish every graduate student, teacher, and teacher educator in the literacy field would read it."
–Keith Stanovich, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
"This volume provides an important update on literacy practices…including celebrations of concepts and practices that seem to be standing the test of time, along with cautions and corrections for the over-enthusiastic."
–Robert Calfee, University of California
"[This] volume makes a significant contribution to the Language and Literacy Series, which has typically been associated with holistic approaches–a narrower band of the spectrum of research and theory than covered by Thompson and Nicholson."
–From the Foreword by Celia Genishi and Dorothy Strickland, Series Editors
This practical text draws on a wide but integrated range of research and theory on how children learn to read and appreciate literature. The authors provide a much-needed, balanced analysis of both traditional and progressive approaches that goes beyond phonics and whole language. Learning to Read features leading-edge research and a global perspective on such controversial topics as: literacy and social background, phonemic awareness, self-discovery of letter-sound relations, the use of text structure for comprehension, and the effects of contrasting teaching approaches. The student-friendly text includes preview questions, chapter reviews, and study questions to help the reader reflect on the chapter contents and discuss the implications for teaching and learning.
G. Brian Thompson is at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and Tom Nicholson is at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
