Jennifer Serravallo is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning educator, literacy consultant, frequent invited speaker at state and national conferences, and former member of the Parents Magazine editorial board. Jen is best known for creating books (including The Reading Strategies Book 2.0) and resources rooted in research that help make responsive, strategic, differentiated literacy instruction possible for all educators. Jen’s books are used around the world and several have been translated into French, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian. In 2023, she launched her podcast To the Classroom: Conversations with Researchers and Educators. Jen holds a BA from Vassar College and an MA from Teachers College Columbia University, where she has also taught graduate and undergraduate classes. Follow Jen on X (@jserravallo) and Instagram (@jenniferserravallo), learn more from her website/blog: www.jenniferserravallo.com, and join the Reading and Writing Strategies Facebook Community.
Teaching reading is the responsibility of all teachers – but how? This is the book that highlights the critical skills regardless of age or curricula. It emphasizes the active view of reading, the critical nature of reading for purpose, starts from what the reader brings to the text, and acknowledges that reading tasks and purposes can be unique to content areas. Packed with great ideas, grounded in research, and written for the teacher who wants to increase their impact on their students to share the passion for learning. -- John Hattie * Melbourne Laureate Professor Emeritus * Teaching reading and learning to read are enormously complex tasks. It certainly involves phonics, but so much more. Jennifer Serravallo does a masterful job of unpacking what is involved in becoming a proficient reader. Equally important, she provides remarkably clear and readable examples, with supporting detail, of how to teach those many essential competencies involved in reading instruction. It′s one thing to talk about what needs to be done to create readers; it′s quite another to actually show how it′s done in the classroom. Clearly Jennifer Serravallo is a master of both! If you′re interested in putting the science of reading into action, this book is for you. -- Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D. * Professor Emeritus, Literacy Education * We know that teaching reading is rocket science but aren’t always sure how to fly the ship. This is the instruction manual. It’s the guide you need to right the ship and ensure that students learn to read at high levels. You’ll find practical ideas and examples that help you maneuver the complex world of literacy learning with ease. -- Douglas Fisher * Professor, San Diego State University * This book is packed with tools, tables, tips, and practical lesson structures that support predictability and teacher decision-making. With student engagement front and center, Jen shows us that we don’t have to choose between structured and responsive teaching. Kids need both! -- Kari Yates Once in a generation a teacher’s teacher comes along and makes plain what adults can do to ensure children thrive. Jen is that teacher, and this book is required reading for all of us who believe every child can develop powerful literacies, and want a role to play in that development. -- Rachael Gabriel This timely, thorough text from educator and author Serravallo (The Reading Strategies Book) presents a convincing case for integrating reading throughout K-8 students’ school day, as well as concrete strategies and structures for making it happen. After two chapters focused on the foundations of reading education and the importance of explicit reading instruction across the disciplines, the subsequent chapters each highlight a specific structure for explicitly engaging students in reading, from read-alouds to reader’s theater. Each chapter in this ""Lesson Structures"" section is full of detailed examples, research, and resources for lesson planning. Serravallo employs a consistent format in each chapter, opening with an annotated lesson example before providing summaries of the research related to this lesson type, considerations for planning, videos of sample lessons in action, and practical suggestions for teaching the lesson structure. This book provides excellent resources for employing a variety of engaging reading strategies that have wide applicability across K-8 contexts. Purchase for libraries with a focus on reading, explicit instruction, or a new curriculum. -- School Library Journal I love the annotated lesson plans that show this is what I had planned, but this happened, because that’s life in the classroom. There’s no scripted program or curriculum that can address the kids in front of you necessarily. The lesson structures [in Teaching Reading Across the Day] offer teachers the background information they need but also the flexibility . . . to make the decisions about what’s best for their students. -- Olivia Wahl