Rebuilding the Foundation: Effective Reading Instruction for 21st Century Literacy is the seventh book in the Leading EdgeTM series. The Leading Edge series unites education authorities from around the globe and asks them to confront the important issues that affect teachers and administrators the issues that profoundly impact student success. The experts contributing to this anthology do not prescribe one method to transact change. They embrace the mission, trusting that teachers and administrators the true change leaders will venture to the Leading Edge to embrace the challenges and opportunities that will guarantee the success of their students. Teaching reading is a complex task. There is no simple formula for developing good instruction. What really matters are well-meaning and knowledgeable literacy professionals at all levels willing to engage in deep and thoughtful analyses and discussions about what it means to be a reader, what it means to be an effective teacher of reading, and what it means to be a school and school system that provides reading instruction that works for all its students. Rebuilding the Foundation is not a prescription for designing reading programs. Rather, it leads its readers to engage in a deeper and more thoughtful professional conversation about what is meant by effective reading instruction for all students. It reconsiders the full reading curriculum the principles of effective instruction; student motivation; materials; developing curricula at the primary level and beyond; teaching various aspects of reading; assessment; and teacher professional development. The contributors examine how reading instruction is conceptualized and what must be done to make it work for all students. Hence, this book is less about building onto or altering existing models of reading education and more about how reading educators and policymakers might think about rebuilding and reconceptualizing, perhaps from the ground up, what it means to provide effective instruction in reading to all students at all levels.
