Good Teaching: An Integrated Approach to Language, Literacy, and Learning

With Integrating Reading and the Language Arts, Stice, Bertrand, and Bertrand provided a lucid description of the theory and practice of an effective literacy education. Now, in their updated edition, Nancy Bertrand and Carole Stice go a step further-creating both a comprehensive textbook and an authoritative reference on every essential you need to know about teaching reading and writing, from language development, the reading and writing processes, curriculum, and assessment to organizing the classroom. The book gets preservice and new teachers off to a good start with a solid theoretical foundation, connecting theory to practice and providing a framework upon which they can build their knowledge. The book then offers compatible teaching experiences, with visits to real teachers in real classrooms.

Bertrand and Stice believe that literacy learning parallels oral language learning and that these processes happen best in classrooms where teachers understand what language is, how the brain works in learning and language development, and the implications of this knowledge for instruction. Therefore, they present an integrated language and literacy perspective in which they

• detail their theoretical and research base
• provide connections to and a framework for instruction
• describe the major approaches
• offer a variety of sound, successful teaching techniques and strategies
• present accompanying evaluation procedures.

The authors take the best of their original text and update it with

• an expanded definition of literacy with relevant discussions of socio-cultural, psycholinguistic, and constructivist theory
• new research data, particularly in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, and guided reading
• more information on the reading process, learning to read, and teaching reading.

Each chapter provides discussion points and summaries, theory-to-practice guides, and suggested readings and activities. Plus, scholarly commentary along the way reminds readers of what constitutes good teaching of language and literacy.

An ideal textbook for teacher education programs as well as an authoritative reference for school district professional development, Good Teaching is what one commentator calls a "strategy feast," strong on practice, comprehensive, yet easy to read and theoretically smart.