Finding the Right Texts

Elfrieda H. Hiebert, PhD, is CEO and President of TextProject, Inc. She has worked in the field of early reading acquisition for more than 40 years as a classroom teacher, teacher educator, and researcher. Her research, which addresses how fluency, vocabulary, and knowledge can be fostered through appropriate texts, has been published in numerous scholarly journals and books. Dr. Hiebert’s contributions to research and practice have been recognized with such honors as the Research to Practice Award from the American Educational Research Association and the Oscar S. Causey Award from the Literacy Research Association. Misty Sailors, PhD, is Associate Professor of Literacy Education in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her current research focuses on the instruction that surrounds elementary classroom texts, teacher education, and language policies related to reading instruction in international settings. Dr. Sailors is the Primary Investigator of a Teacher Quality Professional Development Reading grant. She also directs a project to develop reading and content-area materials for elementary learners in South Africa, funded by the United States Agency for International Development. Dr. Sailors is a recipient of the President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Recognition Award for Emerging Scholars from the American Association of University Women.

1. The (Mis)Match between Texts and Students Who Depend on Schools to Become Literate, Elfrieda H. Hiebert

I. Frameworks for Creating and Selecting Instructional Texts

2. Decodable Text: Why, When, and How?, Marilyn Jager Adams

3. Repetition of Words: The Forgotten Variable in Texts for Beginning and Struggling Readers, Elfrieda H. Hiebert and Leigh Ann Martin

4. The Challenges of Developing Leveled Texts in and for Developing Countries: The Ithuba Writing Project in South Africa, Misty Sailors, James V. Hoffman, and Mark W.F. Condon

II. Addressing the Content of Texts for Beginning and Struggling Readers: The Role of Informational Texts

5. Text in Hands-On Science, Gina N. Cervetti and Jacqueline Barber

6. Informational Text Difficulty for Beginning Readers, Nell K. Duke and Alison K. Billman

7. Text Modification: Enhancing English Language Learners' Reading Comprehension, Young-Suk Kim and Catherine E. Snow

III. Instructional Strategies for Adapting Texts for Beginning and Struggling Readers

8. Text–Reader Matching: Meeting the Needs of Struggling Readers, Heidi Anne E. Mesmer and Staci Cumming

9. Placing and Pacing Beginning Readers in Texts: The Match between Texts and Children's Knowledge of Words, Kathleen J. Brown

10. When the Right Texts Are Difficult for Struggling Readers, Alison K. Billman, Katherine Hilden, and Juliet L. Halladay

11. Teaching Adolescents Who Struggle with Text: Research and Practice, Mary E. Curtis

IV. Pulling It Together

12. Teachers Using Texts: Where We Are and What We Need, Anne McGill-Franzen