Executive Skills and Reading Comprehension A Guide for Educators

This pioneering book is now in a revised and expanded second edition featuring the latest neuroscientific knowledge and instructional strategies. Kelly B. Cartwright provides a teacher-friendly explanation of executive skills--such as planning, organization, cognitive flexibility, and impulse control--and their role in reading comprehension. Detailed examples illustrate how each skill is deployed by strong comprehenders and ways to tailor instruction for students who are struggling. The companion website features reproducible planning and assessment forms from the book as well as supplemental card sorts to teach and assess cognitive flexibility, all ready to download and print in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.
 
New to This Edition
*Updated throughout with advances in theory, research, and instruction.
*Chapter on word recognition, with particular attention to dyslexia.
*Information on the development of the brain's reading network.
*Expanded emphasis on oral language comprehension.
*Appendix of intervention studies; online-only supplement with card sorts to teach and assess cognitive flexibility.
 

Kelly B. Cartwright, PhD, is Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Teacher Preparation at Christopher Newport University, where she directs the READ (Reading, Executive Function, and Development) Lab, serves as a Research Scholar for the Center for Education Research and Policy, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in cognitive, language, and literacy processes. Her research focuses on the development of skilled reading comprehension and the neurocognitive and affective factors that underlie comprehension processes and difficulties from preschool through adulthood. Dr. Cartwright regularly works with teachers in schools throughout the United States to better understand and improve comprehension instruction for striving readers, and these experiences inform her research.
 
 

Foreword, Nell K. Duke
Preface
Prologue: Linking the New with the Old: How Are Familiar Reading Skills and Strategies Related to Executive Skills?
1. Executive Skills: What Are They, and Why Are They Important for Developing Thinking Readers?
2. Plans and Goals: Getting Ready to Read
3. Organization: Why Text and Reader Organization Matter
4. Cognitive Flexibility: Juggling Multiple Aspects of Reading
5. Working Memory: Holding and Linking Ideas in Mind While Reading
6. Inhibition and Impulse Control: Resisting Distractions to Support Comprehension
7. Social Understanding: The Importance of Mind Reading for Reading Comprehension
8. Executive Skills, Word Recognition, and Dyslexia: Cracking the Code Is Complicated, Too
Appendix A: Rubric for Assessing Executive Skills in Observations of Your Students’ Reading Behavior
Appendix B: List of Games That Require Behaviors Related to the Executive Skills Described in This Book
Appendix C: List of Executive Skill-Based Intervention Studies That Resulted in Improvements in Reading
Children's Literature Cited
References
Index