Each summer the teachers here at the Oasis get together and form a study group that examines in detail one recently published education book. After perusing a number of titles, we chose Michael Pressley’s Reading Instruction That Works. We chose the book for one reason: We wanted a comprehensive overview of the reading research to date and advice on how we, as teachers, could apply what is known in our individual classrooms. All of us had taken college courses, workshops, and inservice classes that offered information on reading instruction. However, we all agreed that our knowledge was scattered and fuzzy at best. Although we taught various grades and a variety of subjects, we found the book offered an abundance of information useful for any teacher.

Pressley’s stated goal is to provide a "reader-friendly review of the research evidence pertaining to beginning reading, one that doesn't require [readers] to have technical background knowledge in reading research." In this he succeeds admirably. While the text is chock-full of references to studies and analyses, it is by no means a dry, dense tome. It is most definitely reader- and teacher-friendly.

As denoted in the subtitle, Pressley argues for balanced instruction. "Whole-language theorists," he writes, "had it about half-right with respect to the development of reading skills. Yes, authentic reading and writing are important in the development of literacy, but systematic instruction in skills is also very important." Both whole language and skills only instruction are incomplete models, notes Pressley. What is needed is a balance of the two.

Throughout the book and in numerous ways, Pressley makes several points that any teacher (no matter what his or her grade level or subject area) should keep in mind:

Readers will find a gold mine of information throughout the text. Especially helpful, for example, is an overview and discussion of an analysis that he and Peter Afflerbach did in 1995. The two reviewed studies published up to that point and constructed a summary of what good readers do. In short, good readers:

-are "clear about what they want to get from it"

-make a reading plan

-decide which parts of the text should be read first; which parts should be read with care

-relate their prior knowledge to what they are reading

-vary their speed

-stop to reread when necessary

-draw conclusions while reading (conclusions which might eventually change as they read further)

-"integrate ideas encountered in different parts of the text"

-look for cause and effect connections

-make many interpretations as they read

-form mental images

-use fix-up strategies when understanding breaks down

-create summary comments

-reflect on the text

Unlike some books of this type, Reading Instruction That Works is not simply an overview of current reading research. Rather, Pressley includes much discussion of what the research means to the individual classroom teacher. There are, for example, two especially helpful (and inspiring) sections on outstanding teachers. Pressley takes the reader into real classrooms and offers a fly-on-the-wall perspective of what is happening in both exceptional as well as typical classrooms. It is certainly an eye-opening, and ultimately encouraging, discussion.

One particularly cogent chapter of the book is titled "Before Reading Words Begins." If you have ever wondered what phonemic awareness is and how to develop it in your students, you will come away from this chapter informed and motivated. Here Pressley notes, "Many kindergarten and grade-1 children lack the awareness that words are streams of sounds that can be disentangled and that sounds can be assembled to produce words." In other words, they lack phonemic awareness. "Fortunately," writes Pressley, "phonemic awareness can be developed through instruction, with clear benefits to subsequent acquisition of reading skills."

One section that teachers of disadvantaged, at-risk children will identify with is a discussion concerning weak readers’ failures to make inferences. Pressley notes, " . . . inferential skills depend in part on the possession of prior knowledge related to text. Poor readers are often very deficient in their knowledge of the world relative to good readers." One reason—although certainly not the only reason—poor readers are deficient in their knowledge of the world is because they are poor readers. They do not learn as much content from reading as their peers who are better readers. It is an unfortunate cycle. Comprehension depends of prior knowledge. Poor readers are not absorbing that knowledge from texts because they are poor readers. Thus, as Pressley notes, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

One point that our study group found especially fascinating is "rather than trying to sound out an unfamiliar word, poorer readers rely on textual and picture cues and clues to make a guess about a word’s meaning . . . Although such students might process the letters somewhat and use some letter-level information in making their guess, their processing of the letter cues is much less complete than it could be, with the picture and semantic-contextual cues given priority." This, we agreed, was something that we had witnessed over and over in our classrooms. So, while semantic-contextual cues are helpful for determining the meaning of the word, "[l]etter-level cues," notes Pressley, "are the primary means of recognizing words."

It is impossible to do justice to this wonderful work in a brief review. We strongly encourage you to get the book for yourself and spend some time reading and reflecting upon it. Highly recommended. A rock-solid, impressive work.

Reviewed by the Education Oasis Staff