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Literacy for the 21st Century: Balancing Reading and Writing Instruction, 8th edition

Published by Pearson (January 7, 2021) © 2022

  • Gail E. Tompkins California State University, Fresno, Late Professor Emerita
  • Emily Rodgers The Ohio State University
  • Adrian Rodgers The Ohio State University

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For courses in elementary reading methods.

Teaching reading and writing with a balance of theory and applications

Literacy for the 21st Century integrates what we know about teaching reading and writing with ideas that lead to the future. It provides the balance of pedagogy and application that teachers need to be successful. The text emphasizes grade-level standards and how to meet them.

The 8th Edition welcomes new coauthors, skilled teacher educators Emily Rodgers and Adrian Rodgers. Content has been reorganized and updated to better support teaching and learning. It includes 2 new reading and writing chapters, a new standalone chapter on spelling, and more.

Hallmark features of this title

  • Support for balanced literacy instruction includes reading and writing instruction vignettes, guidelines to teach kids to be strategic, and sample mini-lessons.
  • Real examples of student work illustrate grade-appropriate literacy development.
  • The Compendium of Instructional Procedures is a how-to resource of step-by-step, evidence-based classroom procedures.
  • Teacher accountability is emphasized with to-do checklists and standards boxes.
  • Assessment resources show how to pick the right tool. Real assessment examples help readers analyze what works in daily practice.
  • Differentiated instruction for diverse learners includes sections on teaching English learners and interventions to help struggling students with different cultural backgrounds or literacy progress.

New and updated features of this title

  • NEW: Two new reading and writing chapters allow instructors to spend more time on each of these essential topics.
  • UPDATED: Literacy development is now integrated into a revised Chapter 2. This will help teachers build a foundational understanding of how children develop as readers and writers.
  • UPDATED: Phonemic awareness and phonics content is expanded in a new Chapter 4 to better prepare teachers for developing phonemic awareness and teaching phonics
  • UPDATED: Assessment and evaluation concepts are clarified and differentiated in Chapter 3. New discussions and featured examples of running records show how to capture and analyze the errors young students make while reading.
  • NEW: Chapter 6, Learning to Spell, focuses on stages of spelling development, spelling strategies, and spelling assessment.

The LMS-Compatible Assessment Bank streamlines assessments and grading

  • NEW: Learning outcome quizzes, application exercises and automatically graded chapter tests can be assigned from a packaged file. Questions give students feedback and model responses based on their answers.

Features of Pearson eText for the 8th Edition

  • Video Examples, including authentic classroom videos and interviews with experts in the field, expand on principles or concepts in each chapter, helping put the reading into context.
  • An Interactive Glossary allows students to quickly build their professional vocabulary as they read.

PART 1: UNDERSTANDING AND TEACHING FOR LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

  1. Becoming an Effective Literacy Teacher
  2. Examining Students’ Literacy Development
  3. Assessing Students’ Literacy Development

PART 2: LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

  1. Cracking the Alphabetic Code
  2. Developing Fluent Readers and Writers
  3. Learning to Spell
  4. Expanding Academic Vocabulary
  5. Teaching Comprehension: Reader Factors
  6. Teaching Comprehension: Text Factors

PART 3: LITERACY INSTRUCTION

  1. Scaffolding Students’ Reading Development
  2. Scaffolding Students’ Writing Development
  3. Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum

PART 4: COMPENDIUM OF INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES

About our authors

Gail E. Tompkins was Professor Emerita at California State University, Fresno. She also worked with teachers in their kindergarten through 8th grade classrooms and led staff-development programs on reading and writing. Dr. Tompkins was inducted into the California Reading Associations Reading Hall of Fame in recognition of her accomplishments in the field of reading, and she’s received the prestigious Provosts award for Excellence in Teaching at California State University, Fresno. Dr. Tompkins authored 6 other books published by Pearson: Language Arts: Patterns of Practice, Language Arts Essentials, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product, 50 Literacy Strategies, and two grade-specific versions of this text: Literacy in the Early Grades: A Successful Start for PreK-4 Readers and Writers and Literacy in the Middle Grades: Teaching Reading and Writing to Fourth Through Eighth Graders. Dr. Tompkins has also worked with kindergarten through college-level writing teachers at National Writing Project sites in California and Oklahoma.

Emily Rodgers is a Professor of Reading and Literacy in Early and Middle Childhood at The Ohio State University. After a nearly 10-year career teaching students from 2nd to 8th grade, Emily decided to pursue a PhD to better understand reading and literacy development. Now, she mentors graduate students, teaches courses in early literacy and codirects the Ramseyer Reading Lab at OSU. She is an active researcher, author and coauthor of articles and books focused on scaffolding early literacy instruction and teacher education. Currently, she is codirecting an $8 million Education Innovation and Research grant called HEROES, a literacy professional development initiative for special education teachers working with beginning readers.

Adrian Rodgers is a former high school English teacher and is now an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University. His research areas are literacy and teacher education for preservice and in-service teachers. He teaches early and middle childhood literacy and teacher preparation courses and advises graduate students who are primarily educators working on their masters or doctoral degrees in literacy. Most recently, Adrian has focused on international contexts, especially Indonesia. He has published in journals such as Teaching and Teacher Education, coauthored several books and serves as a reviewer for The Reading Teacher.

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