From Phonics to Fluency: Effective Teaching of Decoding and Reading Fluency in the Elementary School

Concentrating on phonemic awareness, phonics and word decoding, and fluency, Rasinski and Padak, teachers of education at Kent State University, offer approaches to word study in this resource for new and experienced teachers in elementary classrooms. The approaches are based on literacy theory, reading research, and classroom experience, and span several ideological constructs, including authentic texts, the language- experience approach, and synergistic instruction. A full chapter is dedicated to involving parents, and another to word games. Voices of real teachers demonstrate how the strategies work in real life classrooms. Appendices provide lists of prefixes and suffixes, and a list of websites for word study. This second edition features technology and research icons, and an expanded focus English language learners. There is also new material on teachers as informed consumers of products on word recognition and fluency. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dr. Timothy Rasinski is a Professor of Education in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, and Curriculum Studies. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in literacy education. His major interests include working with children who find reading difficult, phonics and reading fluency instruction, and teacher development in literacy education. He has published over 100 articles and 10 books on various aspects of reading education. Dr. Rasinski is past editor of The Reading Teacher and is currently an editor for the Journal of Literacy Research. He has served as president of the College Reading Association and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association. He earned bachelor degrees in economics and education at the University of Akron and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His master's degree in special education also comes from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Dr. Rasinski was awarded the Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.

Nancy Padak is a Distinguished Professor of Education at Kent State University where she directs the Reading and Writing Center and teaches graduate courses in literacy education and recently received the honor of Kent State University Distinguished Professor. She was a part of the team that wrote the initial grant to fund the state literacy resource center at Kent State University-Ohio Literacy Resource Center (OLRC) and has been a middle school and high school classroom teacher and administrator in a large urban school district. She frequently works with teachers, has written or edited a dozen books and more than 100 scholarly articles. Nancy is a past College Reading Association President and a former Editor of The Reading Teacher. She currently edits the Journal of Literacy Research. Nancy . Nancy has three grown children, Katie, Mike and Matt. Her husband, Gary is Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Kent State. She enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.