Early Literacy Instruction and Intervention: The Interactive Strategies Approach

This established text and teacher resource is now in a revised and updated third edition, with a broader focus on whole-class instruction as well as small-group and individualized intervention. The evidence-based Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) provides a clear framework for supporting literacy development in grades K-3, particularly for students who experience reading difficulties. The book gives teachers the knowledge needed to more effectively use existing curricular materials to meet core instructional goals in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, word solving/word learning, vocabulary and language skills, and comprehension. Twenty-six reproducible forms can be copied from the book or downloaded and printed from the companion website. Of special value, the website also features approximately 200 pages of additional printable assessment tools and instructional resources. Prior edition title: Early Intervention for Reading Difficulties.

New to This Edition

• Increased attention to whole-class instruction, teaching linguistically diverse students, writing development, and language–literacy connections.
• More examples of explicit instructional language, including sample scripts.
• Incorporates the latest research about early literacy development and difficulties.
• End-of-chapter "key points" and an end-of-book glossary.
• Additional online-only reproducible tools, including ISA lesson sheets.

Donna M. Scanlon, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where she served as director of the Child Research and Study Center. Dr. Scanlon has spent most of her career studying children’s reading difficulties and helping families and schools address the needs of students who struggle with literacy development. Her research contributed to the emergence of response to intervention as a process for preventing reading difficulties and avoiding inappropriate and inaccurate learning disability classifications. In recent years, her work has focused on the development of teacher knowledge and teaching skill to help prevent reading difficulties in young children and remediate reading difficulties among older children. Dr. Scanlon has served on the Literacy Research Panel, Response to Intervention Task Force, and Response to Intervention Commission of the International Literacy Association.

Kimberly L. Anderson, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Literacy Studies, English Education, and History Education at East Carolina University. Her research focuses on improving teacher preparation for early literacy instruction and on the development of literacy tutoring protocols that can be used by tutors with limited expertise. Dr. Anderson contributed to research on the Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) in her past role as a research associate and director of professional development at the Child Research and Study Center, University at Albany, State University of New York. Dr. Anderson has a particular interest in the role of strategy instruction in word solving and has studied the differential impact of professional development that emphasizes the combination of alphabetic decoding and meaning-based strategies, one of the main tenets of the ISA.

Erica M. Barnes, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her research investigates teacher–child interactions in preschool and early elementary classrooms that promote language and literacy growth, with an emphasis on the developmental trajectories of children with varying levels of language abilities from underserved populations. Dr. Barnes is interested in how language facilitates literacy development, and how teachers may differentiate instruction for students to prevent literacy-learning difficulties. She has worked as a special education teacher, a teacher consultant, and a progress-monitoring consultant in K-12 settings.

Joan M. Sweeney, MSEd, is a reading specialist in a Capital District public school in New York State. Previously, she was a research associate in the Child Research and Study Center, University at Albany, State University of New York, where she provided intervention for struggling readers, supervised intervention teachers, and coached classroom teachers utilizing the Interactive Strategies Approach to support children’s literacy development.