Reclaiming Reading: Teachers, Students, and Researchers Regaining Spaces for Thinking and Action

Inviting teachers back to the role of reflective advocates for thoughtful reading instruction, this book presents theory and pedagogical possibilities to reclaim and build upon the knowledge base that was growing when government mandates, scripted commercial programs, and high stakes tests took over as the dominant agenda for reading instruction in U.S. public schools. It examines how the teaching of reading can be reclaimed via an intensive reconsideration of five pillars as central to the teaching and learning of reading: learning, teaching, curriculum, language, and sociocultural contexts.Reclaiming Reading offers the knowledge base for taking good reading instruction out of the cracks and placing it back at the center of the classroom. Explaining what happens in readers' minds as they read, and how teachers can design practices to support that process, it informs and encourages teachers to initiate a pedagogy that will be less subversive and more mainstream when constraints are reduced or even removed and teachers are more able to return to the stance of reflective, knowledgeable, professional decision-makers.