Ready to Read: A Multisensory Approach to Language-Based Comprehension Instruction

Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading: it makes learning possible and determines students' long-term success across all academic subjects. But for many children with reading disability, comprehension doesn't happen easily--they need explicit instruction to master this skill. That's why general and special education teachers need this book. A concise, highly accessible text, it's the first to provide guidelines for basing comprehension instruction on students' language ability and to use the popular multisensory teaching approach to help educators teach comprehension skills in ways that complement each child's learning styles.

Pre- and inservice general and special educators will discover the keys to teaching the high-level reading skills that come together to form comprehensionâ "vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and listening comprehension. For each of these critical skills, teachers will get a clear explanation of what the skill is, how it develops, and how it contributes to reading success. Then they'll learn how to differentiate instruction based on students' language abilities and use effective multisensory adaptations to help students meet key literacy goals, such as

• increasing vocabulary
• understanding prefixes and suffixes
• comprehending complex sentences
• monitoring and repairing breakdowns in sentence comprehension
• sharpening inferential skills during reading
• retelling a structured story
• understanding cause and effect relationships
• and more

To demonstrate how to differentiate instruction for students with reading disability having a range of language abilities, the book follows case histories of three students with different learning challenges and shows teachers how to adapt instruction to meet diverse needs. Educators will also get helpful recommendations for conducting formal and informal assessment of student progress in each skill area.

A straightforward, reader-friendly guide to teaching comprehension, this book prepares teachers for one of their most important tasks--helping all their students make the critical leap from "learning to read" to "reading to learn."

About the Author

Francie M. Matthews, Ph.D., holds a doctoral degree from the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department at Northwestern University. She is the founder and director of a learning center specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities in Westfield, New Jersey. She has worked with children and adults with language learning differences for 25 years through her center, public schools, and clinical settings and has a long-standing interest in the relationship of oral language abilities to literacy. Dr. Matthews has presented on the identification and treatment of reading disorders at the state and national levels and has authored several articles on this topic. She is a recent past president of the New Jersey Branch of The International Dyslexia Association. Dr. Matthews also served on the Board of Trustees of the Winston School in Short Hills, New Jersey, a school for students with learning differences.

Mary L. Farrell, Ph.D., earned her Ph.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU), where she directs the Center for Dyslexia Studies, through which FDU's International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC) and International Dyslexia Association (IDA)â "accredited Orton-Gillingham teacher training program is provided. Dr. Farrell is also University Director of the Regional Center for Students with Learning Disabilities, a comprehensive support program for colleges students with learning disabilities. .