Teaching Readers (Not Reading): Moving Beyond Skills and Strategies to Reader-Focused Instruction

Reading instruction is too often grounded in a narrowly defined science of reading that focuses exclusively on cognitive skills and strategies. Yet cognition is just one aspect of reading development. This book guides K-8 educators to understand and address other scientifically supported factors that influence each student’s literacy learning, including metacognition, motivation and engagement, social-emotional learning, self-efficacy, and more. Peter Afflerbach uses classroom vignettes to illustrate the broad-based nature of student readers’ growth, and provides concrete suggestions for instruction and assessment. The book’s utility is enhanced by end-of-chapter review questions and activities and a reproducible tool, the Healthy Readers Profile, which can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 ½ x 11 size.