This is a comprehensive text about the beliefs, issues, and practices at the forefront of literacy education–language, ethnic, and academic diversity; authentic assessment; social construction of meaning and knowledge–explored through the lens of a cohesive instructional design, the Book Club Program. As such, it provides a well-researched pedagogical model. Commentaries by eminent literacy scholars outside the project provide an expanded perspective on the many issues raised by the chapter authors. The resulting multiplicity of voices–including those of students (the authors of Chapter 10) who were fifth-grade participants in the Book Club program–is a unique feature of this long-awaited volume.


Section I: The Book Club Program Foundations and Components • Theoretical and Research Foundations • Classrooms as Communities • Reading in the Book Club Program • When Readers Write • Contexts for Students to Lead Their Own Discussions • Section II: Extending Research on the Book Club Program • Talk About Text Among Special Education Students • Second-Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms • The Cross-Aged Literacy Program • Assessment Research • Students Speak: Book Club from Our Perspective • Section III: Teacher-Researchers in the Book Club Program • Reflective Teaching for Continuing Development • Extensions to Early Elementary Classrooms • They Can Do It Too!: Book Club with First and Second Graders • The Content-Area Connection • A Portfolio Approach to Assessment


The commentaries are written by: Gordon Wells • Carol Sue Englert • Robert Rueda • Donna E. Alvermann • Elfrieda H. Hiebert • P. David Pearson • Dorothy Strickland • Lee Galda • Barbara M. Taylor • Karen K. Wixson • Kathryn H. Au

Series edited by: Celia Genishi, Donna E. Alvermann