Language and Literacy Learning in Schools

Elaine R. Silliman, PhD, CCC-SLP, Professor Emeritus of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Cognitive and Neural Sciences at the University of South Florida, is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the International Academy for Research on Learning Disabilities, and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Graduate Center of CUNY. A past Editor of the ASHA journal Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, she was elected to the first Specialty Board on Child Language. Her research and publications focus on language learning disabilities and the language basis of literacy in children struggling with reading, writing, and spelling, including bilingual children and those with social dialect variations. She is coauthor or coeditor of three previous books, including the Handbook of Language and Literacy.Louise C. Wilkinson, EdD, is Distinguished Professor of Education, Psychology, and Communication Sciences in the School of Education at Syracuse University. She is best known for her extensive research on children's language and literacy learning, which has been published in more than 130 articles, chapters, and volumes. She has served on the boards of major research journals and of the National Reading Research Center, the National Association of Universities and Land-Grant Colleges' Commission for Human Resources and Social Change, and the U.S. Department of Education's Laboratory for Student Success. Dr. Wilkinson is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Association of Applied and Preventative Psychology. Among her many professional leadership activities nationally and internationally, Dr. Wilkinson has chaired national review panels for the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.

Filling a unique niche with its thoughtful and practical interdisciplinary focus, this up-to-date volume will help regular educators, special educators, and speech-language pathologists meet their shared goals of fostering literacy skills for all children, including those with disabilities. The authors succeed admirably in providing theoretically driven, evidence-based teaching practices in such areas as phonological processing, decoding, writing, spelling, and oral and reading comprehension. This is a superb resource for students and practicing professionals who are grappling with the complexities of helping all children learn to read and write, while also trying to meet the formidable mandates of standards-based education.--Anne van Kleeck, PhD, Callier Center for Communication Disorders, University of Texas at DallasSilliman and Wilkinson have assembled a premier team of authors to address the many critical questions facing contemporary educators and speech-language pathologists. This 'must-read' volume is both practical and scholarly, giving readers a higher-level understanding of the pressing language and literacy issues of our time.--Nickola Wolf Nelson, PhD, CCC-SLP, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Western Michigan UniversityThis volume interweaves the voices of classroom teachers, speech-language pathologists who work with children learning to become literate in English as a first or second language, and researchers from multiple disciplines. Bridging the gulf between educational and clinical practices is no small accomplishment--and is particularly important in the current climate of accountability--yet it is not the sole contribution of this book. Chapters also offer a good mix of pedagogical perspectives, covering everything from the metalinguistic content knowledge necessary for teaching the English language arts to the role of dialogue in fostering student learning. Teacher preparation programs in literacy education and special education are certain to benefit from the accumulated wealth of knowledge contained between the covers of this remarkable book.--Donna E. Alvermann, PhD, Editor, Reading Research Quarterly; Department of Reading Education, University of GeorgiaThe linkages between language and literacy development are critical and have often been overlooked in educational practice. After reading this articulate and insightful book, I was struck by how limited our joint efforts have been and what potential exists for real collaboration among professionals working with struggling students. A stimulating resource for professionals in speech and language, literacy, and special education, this book will help us work together to best meet the needs of the students we all serve.--Donna Ogle, EdD, Department of Reading and Language, National-Louis University - How can I do credit to a book that has rarely left my side since it arrived on my desk a couple of months ago?...I have quoted from it to parents, teachers and speech pathology students, I have written handouts for parents and teachers based on some of the sections and I have implemented ideas in my own clinical practice. --Speech Pathology Australia, 1/12/2007

• I. Challenges and Choices in the New Educational Landscape1. Collaboration for Language and Literacy Learning: Three Challenges, Silliman and Wilkinson2. Collaborative Models of Instruction and Intervention: Choices, Decisions, and Implementation, Wallach and EhrenII. Word Recognition and Reading Comprehension: Perspectives on Instructional and Intervention Practices3. Language and Discourse Contributions to Word Recognition and Text Interpretation: Implications of a Dynamic Systems Perspective, Gillam and Gorman4. Building Word Recognition Skills through Empirically Validated Instructional Practices: Collaborative Efforts of Speech–Language Pathologists and Teachers, Troia5. Reading Comprehension Instruction for All Students, Whitaker, Gambrell, and Morrow6. Toward More Ambitious Comprehension Instruction, Pressley and Hilden7. Integration of Language and Discourse Components with Reading Comprehension: It’s All About Relationships, Donahue and FosterIII. Writing and Spelling: Perspectives on Instructional and Intervention Practices8. The Role of Dialogue in Constructing Effective Literacy Settings for Students with Language and Learning Disabilities, Englert and Dunsmore9. EmPOWER: A Strategy for Teaching Students with Language Learning Disabilities How to Write Expository Text, Singer and Bashir10. Instructional Approaches to Spelling: The Window on Students' Word Knowledge in Reading and Writing, Templeton11. Integration of Language Components in Spelling Instruction: Instruction That Maximizes Students' Learning, Apel, Masterson, and HartIV. Integrating Education and Clinical Practices12. Putting Humpty Dumpty Together Again: What’s Right with Betsy, Silliman, Wilkinson, and Danzak