Each story includes useful tips or ideas to help solve problems, implement strategies, and tailor activities to the needs of a particular class

This book about the transition from teacher preparation to teaching practice in urban school settings offers rare insight into how teachers can transform their own practice and in the process, transform the culture of schools.

"Cunningham and Allington's voice and presentation style are unique, and I think this distinguishes their book from others. This book is an enjoyable and exciting read for my students. It makes them want to get out there and teach. They walk away from it with not only a sound set of teaching strategies, but a strong sense of why they would use them, and a belief that they can teach like this...Bravo!" -Donna H. Topping, Millersville University "["Classrooms That Work"]'s strengths are the knowledge of the authors, the organization and conversational tone of the text, and the emphasis on ""all" children can learn..".. I believe the information presented changed my students' perspectives on how reading and writing should be viewed and taught." -Brenda Bradshaw, Southwest Missouri State University "[This book] is easy to understand. The most distinguishing feature is that it is comprehensive and less than [350] pages. It is practical in ways others are not." -Dr. Susan McBridge, California Polytechnic State University The fourth edition of "Classrooms That Work" emphasizes a core set of ideas across a variety of timely topics, providing a comprehensive, balanced treatment of instructional reading methods for struggling and culturally diverse students. Pat Cunningham and Dick Allington, with their clear and friendly writing style, emphasize the importance of promoting the integration of phonics and literature-based process writing and reading instruction to enhance ALL students' learning and reading skills. It clarifies concepts, defines key terms, and offers just the right balance of research and practical coverage to make the content complete without being overwhelming. This affordable book helps teachers engage all children in meaning-centered reading by fostering powerful decoding and comprehension strategies and implementing a balanced reading program. It identifies and explores five components: real reading and writing, guided reading, guided writing, decoding/spelling, and word/word knowledge. The fourth edition is filled with workable, practical strategies and activities to use in the classroom. This book plays upon readers' natural curiosity and desire for relevance by offering a modern, applied approach to "traditional" reading topics and an in-depth look at areas of reading instruction not covered by other books. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 describe a sample day in a Building Blocks kindergarten, a sample day in a Four Blocks primary classroom, and a sample week in a Big Blocks intermediate classroom, respectively. Combined, these chapters show how all of the important components of a balanced literacy program can be integrated. For the fourth edition, the authors have reorganized the chapters to reflect an integrative approach to literacy-this new edition starts with Creating Classrooms That Work, a chapter that summarizes the characteristics of the most effective classrooms. Other chapters on words, comprehension, writing, and assessment inform teachers of the need for a balanced approach to literacy. There are also three new chapters in this edition: "Creating Enthusiastic, Independent Readers" (Chapter 2) contains ideas for helping all children become independent readers. "Building Vital, Vivid, and Valuable Vocabularies" (Chapter 5) describes practical strategies for building meaning vocabulary. "Building the Literacy Foundation" (Chapter 3) describes activities to get young children off to a successful start in reading and writing. Meet the Authors Patricia M. Cunningham is a professor of education at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, North Carolina. She has taught in various elementary grades and been a curriculum coordinator and director of reading. Her major professional goal is promoting literacy for all children. Richard L. Allington is a professor of education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He is a past president of the National Reading Conference and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame. Dick has extensively researched effective teaching and how schools can develop effective, expert teachers.

Meet the learning needs and preferences of all students using Children with Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four-Blocks(R) Way for students in grades 1–3. This 144-page book provides a glimpse into an inclusion special-education classroom that uses the Four-Blocks(R) Literacy Model. This wonderful collection of ideas, strategies, and resources includes information on Self-Selected Reading, Guided Reading, Writing, and Working with Words. It also includes strategies for reading and writing success in special-education classrooms, variations for students with disabilities, teacher's checklists, IEP goal suggestions, examples of assistive technology, and answers to commonly asked questions. The book supports the Four-Blocks(R) Literacy Model and provides a list of children's literature that can be used in lessons.

Learn when and how to teach the Guided Reading block using Guided Reading the Four-Blocks(R) Way for grades 1–3. This 224-page book gives a glimpse into classrooms that use the Guided Reading model within a balanced literacy program. The book includes a list of materials needed, comprehension skills and strategies, and activities for before, during, and after reading a text. It also includes a list of children's literature. The book supports the Four-Blocks(R) Literacy Model.

Kevin Ryan is a writer in the much-maligned genre of true crime who desperately needs a devious, over-the-top story for the subject of his next book. How else can he keep his wife Valerie's roots dyed and keep himself from handing out taco samples at the local supermarket? When Kevin isn't Googling himself or spot checking his books' stock at stores around the country or online, he's bringing the hazards (i.e., criminals and other crazies) of his job home to wife Val and twin daughters Taylor and Hayley. Kevin is on the hunt for the big one, the story that could break him out of the mid-list and onto the bestseller lists. And then there's a knock at the door--a story finds him...A distraught 20-year old Jett Carter shows up at the Ryan house because her mother and sister are imprisoned-perhaps if Kevin writes their story and reveals the truth, he might help exonerate them. The Carters' tale is the perfect white-trash-attempted-murder-love-triangle that Kevin's editor will love and his fans will devour. He begins to write "Love You to Death." Then on a beautiful summer day, the wheels of homicide are set in motion and Kevin's own story begins to eclipse the crime he is chronicling. When his #1 fan is murdered and another body turns up, the Ryans' life in Port Gamble and all that Kevin holds dear is in jeopardy. Somewhere in "Love You to Death" and within the "bunch of low rent losers" he's interviewing is the killer.

Ambitious, attractive, and full of potential, five young college students prepared for the new semester. They dreamed of beginning careers and starting families. They had a lifetime of experiences in front of them. But death came without warning in the dark of the night. Brutally ending five promising lives, leaving behind three gruesome crime scenes, the Gainesville Ripper terrorized the University of Florida, casting an ominous shadow across a frightened college town. What evil lurked inside him? What demons drove him to kill? What made him 'A Monster of All Time'?

This is a true story of this man full of adventures and unusual encounters that are highly interesting to read.

This volume adds in important ways to understanding the power and complexity of the forces in the lives of children that impact their literacy learning. The critical issues presented emerge from interpretivist research and thinking practices that are constructivist in nature. The chapters by researchers, teacher researchers, teacher educators, and teachers are antidotes to the present political context in which political agendas are being used to define literacy, literacy teaching and learning, and literacy research in narrow ways. Providing a rich source of information about how young children come to know reading and writing as a tool of communication in a range of social and cultural contexts, this book: *presents current research and thinking in the field; *documents research that is currently being ignored by many who make decisions about children’s learning; *values who children are and what they bring with them to school; *provides a useful tool for advocacy and for social action toward improving education in ways that can make a difference in the lives of young children; and *raises thoughtful issues for discussion. Critical Issues in Early Literacy is essential reading for early childhood teachers and prospective teachers, for teacher educators, for literacy researchers (including teacher researchers), for special educators, for those working with English-language and foreign-language learners, and for early childhood education administrators, advocates, and policy makers.