What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction - International ...

Gather Resources
Familiarize yourself thoroughly with the book you’ll be reading in
your study group. What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction
is a key text in the field, in which highly respected scholars highlight
the best thinking on important literacy topics. Editor Alan Farstrup
has served as both research director and executive director of the
International Reading Association; Jay Samuels has been on the
faculty of the University of Minnesota since 1965 and is one of the
field’s recognized leaders on the topic of fluency. Contributors to this
volume include P. David Pearson, dean of the College of Education at
the University of California, Berkeley; Timothy Shanahan, a member
of the U.S. National Reading Panel and professor at the University of
Illinois, Chicago; and distinguished educator and researcher Dorothy
Strickland of Rutgers University. You should become comfortable
yourself with the entire book, but also identify those chapters that
you might wish to skip in your study group because their topics aren’t
relevant to the group’s needs and interests as a whole.
In addition, you should familiarize yourself with this guide and
with the additional resources included in the Appendix.
Before your first meeting, make sure that every participant in your
study group has a copy of the book.
Finally, make copies of your school’s continuous improvement
plan, state or district standards, other documents or research that may
be relevant to your study, and any forms required by your school or
district for tracking group members’ participation.
Using This Resource
The next section of this guide takes you through a suggested sequence
for your study group. School environments vary, so these guidelines
are intended to provide a flexible model. Using this model, you
can tailor group sessions so they are relevant to the needs of your
particular school and promote optimal professional development for
your faculty and staff. Most session plans focus on a single chapter of
the book and are self-contained, so if the topic of a chapter doesn’t fit
your school’s priorities or context, you can skip over that session.
After welcoming participants, you should open each session with
a brief recap of the previous meeting and, in a group discussion,
share learning and questions from follow-up activities undertaken
From the Professional Development Edition of What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction
(3rd ed.), © 2009 International Reading Association.
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