Upper Elementary Reading Lessons

This book provides descriptive cases, accompanied by analytic commentaries, of nine upper-elementary grade reading lessons that represent an array of sound teaching practices. The cases focus on various reading topics and were written from authentic lessons taught by regular classroom teachers to diverse groups of students. Each lesson contains elements of sound instructional practice as well as potential dilemmas from which both preservice and in-service teachers can benefit.

Marilyn Chambliss is Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Maryland. An educational psychologist with a Ph.D. from Stanford, she is interested in how reading instruction and written materials can be designed to enhance the reading comprehension of all children. Her work includes describing comprehension processes that students use when they read different types of text and developing a system for analyzing the comprehensibility and learnability of textbooks.

Linda Valli is the inaugural Jeffrey & David Mullan Professor of Teacher Education and Professional Development in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Maryland. Her Ph.D. is from the Department of Education Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she developed her interests in educational inequalities and critical theory. She has used cases in her own teaching and conducts research on learning to teach, professional development, culturally-responsive teaching, and education policy.