Reading Success for Struggling Adolescent Learners

“Fully a third of teens are suffering from reading problems–this book offers a wide array of practical solutions.” - Timothy Shanahan, PhD, College of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. “Major changes in instruction and infrastructure must occur to address the literacy challenges of adolescents and the increased literacy demands placed on them. This book can help these changes to happen. Thorough, hopeful, and proactive, the book takes up both enduring and emerging issues and offers fresh perspectives that are cognizant of current realities and constraints” - “Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, PhD, Department of English, and Director, Boise State Writing Project, Boise State University, USA. “With the advent of long-overdue federal attention to adolescent readers through Reading Next, Lenski and Lewis’s book is appearing at just the right time! The volume provides an excellent overview of theoretical and practical issues related to working with adolescents who struggle with literacy. Besides offering sound, research-based ideas for instructional strategies, it also deals with often-overlooked issues, such as working with parents of adolescents and building home–school connections at this critical age. The chapter on supporting upper-level literacy coaches is especially welcome.” - “Camille Blachowicz, PhD, Director, The Reading Center, National-Louis University, USA. “This volume provides a comprehensive treatment of the topic, complete with promising practices. It is a wonderful resource for anyone concerned with the fate of older struggling readers.” - “Richard L. Allington, PhD, Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, University of Tennessee, USA. “The contributors are exceptional literacy scholars who provide an excellent blend of theory and practice as they examine the reading, writing, and learning challenges of struggling adolescents…As the principal of a private school for troubled teens, I am going to use chapters from this book in our weekly teacher study group.” - “Carol M. Santa, PhD, Director of Education, Montana Academy, Marion, Montana, USA.

Susan Lenski, EdD, is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Portland State University, where she teaches graduate reading and language arts courses. Previously, Dr. Lenski taught school for 20 years, working with children from kindergarten through high school. During her years as a teacher, she was awarded the Nila Banton Smith Award from the International Reading Association (IRA) for integrating reading in content-area classes and was instrumental in leading her school to receive an Exemplary Reading Program Award. Dr. Lenski was inducted into the Illinois Reading Hall of Fame in 1999, and she served on the IRA Board of Directors from 2004 to 2007. Her research interests focus on strategic reading and writing, adolescent literacy, preparing teacher candidates, and social justice education. She has published more than 65 articles and 14 books.

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Jill Lewis, EdD, is Professor of Literacy Education at New Jersey City University, where she teaches graduate courses in reading, and reading development courses to underprepared freshmen. Previously she taught high school English and reading in public schools and at a community college. Dr. Lewis is a past member of the IRA’s Board of Directors (2004 to 2007), chaired IRA’s Government Relations Committee, is an IRA Volunteer Education Consultant for a secondary school literacy project in Macedonia, and volunteered in IRA’s Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking project. She served on several state-level task forces, including the New Jersey Task Force on Middle School Literacy, and co-chaired New Jersey’s Task Force for Curriculum Framework for Language Arts Literacy. Dr. Lewis was a Princeton University Faculty Fellow for policy studies and directed community leadership programs in New Jersey. The New Jersey Reading Association awarded her its Distinguished Service Award in 2002. She has authored numerous articles on adolescent literacy, professional development, advocacy, and content-area reading, and has published several books.