David Koppenhaver – författare

Grounded in the belief that all students can learn to read and write print, this book is a thorough yet practical guide for teaching students with significant disabilities. It explains how to provide comprehensive literacy instruction addressing these students' needs, whether they are emergent readers and writers or students acquiring conventional literacy skills. General and special educators, speech-language pathologists, and other professionals will find concise research synopses and theoretical frameworks, practical lesson formats, guidance on incorporating assessment and using assistive technology, and more.

Originally published in 1988. Much has changed since then in schools. Mobile technologies, interactive whiteboards, digital texts, class websites, student-authored blogs, social networking and photo sharing sites found integrated into so many classrooms hadn’t even been imagined by most educators. What hasn’t changed, however, are the developmental needs of adolescents. A sense of competence, opportunities for creative expression, positive social interactions, and opportunities for self-definition remain centrally important. Similarly, print literacy (i.e., reading and writing with traditional orthography) continues to contribute strongly to academic success, employment opportunity, health, and life satisfaction. Consequently, this book remains very relevant today. Through case descriptions of literacy programs situated in formal and informal settings, the book draws attention to the ways that developmental appropriateness and engaging literacy instruction can assist all youth in reaching their full potential as readers and writers.