A Practical Guide to Rigorous Literacy Instruction

The question is a big one: How can we teach our students to read, read well, and read on their own? Reading Reconsidered is expert educators Doug Lemov, Colleen Driggs, and Erica Woolway’s practical, detailed answer to the question. Grounded in advice from successful classrooms nationwide and with over 40 video clips of outstanding teachers, the book provides clear and actionable guidance to make all teachers reading teachers, one tool at a time. The book addresses the often anxiety-inducing world of Common Core, distilling from it four key ideas that help prepare students to be strong readers both in the classroom and in the world beyond it.

This ‘Core of the Core’ comprises the first half of the book and instructs educators on how to teach students to: read harder texts, ‘closely read’ texts rigorously and intentionally, read nonfiction more effectively, and write more effectively in direct response to texts. The second half of Reading Reconsidered reinforces these principles, coupling them with the ‘fundamentals’ of reading instruction—a host of techniques and subject specific tools to reconsider how teachers approach such essential topics as vocabulary, interactive reading, and student autonomy. By helping teachers to reconsider essential literacy topics, Reading Reconsidered does more than just push teachers and students to log more miles on the page — it teaches them to make those miles count.