Executive Skills and Reading Comprehension, Second Edition

Kelly B. Cartwright, PhD, is the Spangler Distinguished Professor of Early Child Literacy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she directs the Reading, Executive function, and Development Lab (READ Lab) and serves as Co-Coordinator for the PhD concentration in Literacy Research, Policy, and Practice and on the Executive Board for the Mebane Early Literacy Center. Her research focuses on the development of skilled reading comprehension and the neurocognitive and affective factors that underlie comprehension processes and difficulties from preschool through adulthood. Dr. Cartwright regularly works with teachers in schools throughout the United States to better understand and improve comprehension instruction for striving readers, and these experiences inform her research.

"As researchers, teachers, and reading specialists, we constantly seek ways to help our striving readers. Cartwright provides practical, accessible, and engaging tools to build readers' executive skills. Equally important, Cartwright deftly and thoroughly builds our understanding of research so we can better understand how executive skills are related to word reading and reading comprehension difficulties. Cartwright's ability to bridge research and practice has made this book a favorite of the future reading specialists in our graduate program!"--Katherine Hilden, PhD, School of Teacher Education and Leadership, Radford University"I was excited to discover the first edition of this book, and immediately started implementing the strategies from the Cognitive Flexibility chapter with my students. Subsequently, I was thrilled to learn that the second edition would have an entire chapter dedicated to word recognition and dyslexia. This book gives teachers, tutors, and reading interventionists simple strategies for weaving executive skill work into their current interventions. Speech–language pathologists will gain exciting new tools for supporting students with reading and executive functioning challenges. Cartwright provides specific tasks for improving impulse control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and more. This second edition is an essential resource for any educator interested in helping students become better readers and thinkers."--Carolee Dean, MS, CCC-SLP, CALT, speech–language pathologist and certified academic language therapist, private practice, Midland, Texas"With a warm and welcoming tone, this book is grounded in real experience in education settings. Cartwright excels in communicating complex research to practitioners in a way that neither oversimplifies nor overwhelms, and that addresses the reader as an active participant. Particular strengths are the book's breadth of coverage, the bridges made between often-siloed areas of research, and the wealth of practical tips and examples. The second edition will be valuable both for scholars who want a comprehensive, engaging overview of this area and for practitioners seeking new ideas for instruction and intervention."--Nicola Yuill, PhD, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, United Kingdom-

• Foreword, Nell K. DukePrefacePrologue: Linking the New with the Old: How Are Familiar Reading Skills and Strategies Related to Executive Skills?1. Executive Skills: What Are They, and Why Are They Important for Developing Thinking Readers?2. Plans and Goals: Getting Ready to Read3. Organization: Why Text and Reader Organization Matter4. Cognitive Flexibility: Juggling Multiple Aspects of Reading5. Working Memory: Holding and Linking Ideas in Mind While Reading6. Inhibition and Impulse Control: Resisting Distractions to Support Comprehension7. Social Understanding: The Importance of Mind Reading for Reading Comprehension8. Executive Skills, Word Recognition, and Dyslexia: Cracking the Code Is Complicated, TooAppendix A: Rubric for Assessing Executive Skills in Observations of Your Students’ Reading BehaviorAppendix B: List of Games That Require Behaviors Related to the Executive Skills Described in This BookAppendix C: List of Executive Skill-Based Intervention Studies That Resulted in Improvements in ReadingChildren's Literature CitedReferencesIndex