It’s always flattering. But there’s a problem.
Writing a book review takes time and… can I be honest here? It can also be a little boring and a lot mundane.
But that was definitely not the case with Sarah Collinge’s book, Raising the Standards Through Chapter Books: The C.I.A. Approach. From the book’s first Introduction through the hands-on C.I.A. worksheets, I was hooked.
Collinge’s words will resonate with many primary, secondary, and even, post-secondary teachers. She writes, “[Students] are reading with the misconception that, at some point, the books will magically make sense to them. The question becomes this: How do I help students to develop the stamina to read longer texts?... It is about the many students in [the] classroom who, despite their interest, are unable to finish longer texts.”
I know that you are already to the question at the finish line. Are students really prepared to read more complex passages at the college level? I think you know the answer to that question as well as I do.
Advocating an honest-to-goodness fix for troubled readers, Ms. Collinge’s reminds us that, “While intervention is important, it alone will not solve the problem. Students need to be able to read complex texts proficiently for success in high school, college and the workplace. Reading these complex texts requires higher skill levels and stamina.”
It is interesting to note that with the accelerating demands that colleges, careers, and everyday life places on the general population, “the text used with students K-12 have decreased in complexity over the last half century.”
That could explain why we’ve seen so many professional development articles, books, and blogs devoted to advancing reading comprehension. In my opinion, the problem lies in the fact that most of this information is simply an outline of "what to do" but they do not give the details of the actual “how to do it”- Collinge’s book changes all that. She shares interesting insights and tips like:
• How-to Prioritize Tight Schedules
• Instructional Read-aloud Frameworks
• Involving Strong Readers and Struggling Readers in the Same Activities
• Using Layered Strategies
• How-to Make Complex Text More Comfortable and Predictable
Raising the Standards Through Chapter Books: The C.I.A. Approach is not about redefining reading skills or strategies across grade levels. Instead this book offers sound ideas that can help every teacher apply known strategies and skills in progressively more demanding texts. It’s fun for the teacher and students. It’s genius!
I highly recommend this book. For those students who are missing the building blocks essential to learning to read, I encourage you to check out how Temple University and others addressed this literacy problem >