Interview with Lou Denti, Ph.D., Co-Author of Effective Practice for Adolescents with Reading and Literacy Challenges
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Linda Schreiber: Today I'm interviewing Lou Denti, professor at California State University in Monterey Bay. Lou and his colleague, Gil Guerin, have written a book on the topic of adolescent literacy. Good afternoon Lou.Lou Denti:Good afternoon Linda, and thanks for asking about the book. Linda:Lou,
Linda Schreiber: Today I'm interviewing Lou Denti, professor at California State University in Monterey Bay. Lou and his colleague, Gil Guerin, have written a book on the topic of adolescent literacy. Good afternoon Lou.
Lou Denti:Good afternoon Linda, and thanks for asking about the book.
Linda:Lou, congratulations on publishing this book. I've heard it's an outstanding collection of chapters written by some very knowledgeable and prominent researchers and writers.
Lou:Yes. It's an edited book by me and Gil Guerin from San Jose State University and the title is Effective Practice for Adolescents with Reading and Literacy Challenges. What I did for this book was to assemble quite a number of contributing authorspeople whose work in adolescent literacy I value. I divided the book into three sections. The first is on vocabulary and I call that section The Gateway to Reading Fluency and Comprehension. Somebody you're familiar withJudy Montgomerywrote a chapter for this section. Her chapter is Evidence-Based Strategies for Vocabulary Instruction and Intervention. That's part of the first section.
The second section is on meaning, reading, and the literacy challenges for diverse students. In this section, we look at English language learners and somebody else you knowVicki Lord-Larsonhas a wonderful chapter in this section on adolescents with language disorders. It's a really good chapter, very practical, very usable, very teacher-friendly.
Linda:I am certain you have addressed some key issues specific to adolescents with these two expert writersboth known for their practical strategies.
Lou:And then the third section is on systemic change around reading and literacy at the secondary level. I have an article in this section written with my co-editor, Gil Guerin. The title of that chapter is Let's Get Serious about Literacy in High School. This chapter takes you through what we think are important systemic changes that need to take place in order to support kids and support teachers at the secondary level.
Also in this section is Action Planning for Struggling Students to Improve Literacy in Content Area Achievement by Linda Carmine and Bonnie Grossen.
Linda:Have you addressed writing as a component of literacy?
Lou: Yes, in fact Louisa Moats wrote a chapter on spelling for the book.
Linda: Another outstanding writer. Lou, is this book written as a textbook or are teaching professionals who you have targeted with the book?
Lou:Gil and I put this together as a teaching resource. It provides secondary teachers with the knowledge and the strategies they need to improve their students' reading skills. However, after every chapter, the authors pose a series of questions that could be used for pre-service teaching courses. Students can read the chapters and then answer some of the questions. There's also an action thesis question. So you could use some of the chapter information to develop an action thesis if you wanted to do that too.
We believe it's a book that kind of fills one of those niche areas, where if a professor picked it up, he or she could say, "I really like this because I can pick and choose the chapters I want my students to read." It functions in that wayit's not a textbook per se in the traditional sensebut it provides lots of opportunities for discussion and interest within a course of study.
Linda:My guess is that educators would find the book very useful if adolescent literacy wasn't addressed in their coursework as undergrads, and of course, most of us did not have courses that addressed that topic.
Lou:Yes, you can do a broad stroke in some of the credential classes on adolescent literacy but we believe this book is also written for general and special educators.
Although, it would be nice for a single-subject professor to have this book as a main text or maybe as a supplementary text. That professor may not be well-versed in all of these areas but could say to the students, "I want you to read these three or four articles that I believe would really make a difference in your thinking."
Linda:You are targeting an area of literacy that has long been overlookedadolescent literacy.
Lou:We feel pretty good about the book addressing adolescent literacy. I think it hits a burgeoning area of interest because so much has been done for K through grade 3 and the early grades and we're starting to say, "OK, what happened to secondary kids?"
Linda:In addition to providing practical information for improving literacy for this age group, you share successful evidence-based programs and practices that can be tailored to the needs of teachers working with struggling adolescent readers.
Lou:Yes, each chapter includes a list of web resources and suggested small group activities to encourage implementation. It's just hot off the pressas a matter of fact, it came out in Decemberso it's only been out a couple of months and the information is very current.
Linda:Congratulations again and best wishes for getting the word out on helping adolescent learners.
The book is published through Routledge Press. For more information go to: www.informaworld.com
Lou Denti:Good afternoon Linda, and thanks for asking about the book.
Linda:Lou, congratulations on publishing this book. I've heard it's an outstanding collection of chapters written by some very knowledgeable and prominent researchers and writers.Lou:Yes. It's an edited book by me and Gil Guerin from San Jose State University and the title is Effective Practice for Adolescents with Reading and Literacy Challenges. What I did for this book was to assemble quite a number of contributing authorspeople whose work in adolescent literacy I value. I divided the book into three sections. The first is on vocabulary and I call that section The Gateway to Reading Fluency and Comprehension. Somebody you're familiar withJudy Montgomerywrote a chapter for this section. Her chapter is Evidence-Based Strategies for Vocabulary Instruction and Intervention. That's part of the first section.
The second section is on meaning, reading, and the literacy challenges for diverse students. In this section, we look at English language learners and somebody else you knowVicki Lord-Larsonhas a wonderful chapter in this section on adolescents with language disorders. It's a really good chapter, very practical, very usable, very teacher-friendly.
Linda:I am certain you have addressed some key issues specific to adolescents with these two expert writersboth known for their practical strategies.
Lou:And then the third section is on systemic change around reading and literacy at the secondary level. I have an article in this section written with my co-editor, Gil Guerin. The title of that chapter is Let's Get Serious about Literacy in High School. This chapter takes you through what we think are important systemic changes that need to take place in order to support kids and support teachers at the secondary level.
Also in this section is Action Planning for Struggling Students to Improve Literacy in Content Area Achievement by Linda Carmine and Bonnie Grossen.
Linda:Have you addressed writing as a component of literacy?
Lou: Yes, in fact Louisa Moats wrote a chapter on spelling for the book.
Linda: Another outstanding writer. Lou, is this book written as a textbook or are teaching professionals who you have targeted with the book?
Lou:Gil and I put this together as a teaching resource. It provides secondary teachers with the knowledge and the strategies they need to improve their students' reading skills. However, after every chapter, the authors pose a series of questions that could be used for pre-service teaching courses. Students can read the chapters and then answer some of the questions. There's also an action thesis question. So you could use some of the chapter information to develop an action thesis if you wanted to do that too.
We believe it's a book that kind of fills one of those niche areas, where if a professor picked it up, he or she could say, "I really like this because I can pick and choose the chapters I want my students to read." It functions in that wayit's not a textbook per se in the traditional sensebut it provides lots of opportunities for discussion and interest within a course of study.
Linda:My guess is that educators would find the book very useful if adolescent literacy wasn't addressed in their coursework as undergrads, and of course, most of us did not have courses that addressed that topic.
Lou:Yes, you can do a broad stroke in some of the credential classes on adolescent literacy but we believe this book is also written for general and special educators.
Although, it would be nice for a single-subject professor to have this book as a main text or maybe as a supplementary text. That professor may not be well-versed in all of these areas but could say to the students, "I want you to read these three or four articles that I believe would really make a difference in your thinking."
Linda:You are targeting an area of literacy that has long been overlookedadolescent literacy.
Lou:We feel pretty good about the book addressing adolescent literacy. I think it hits a burgeoning area of interest because so much has been done for K through grade 3 and the early grades and we're starting to say, "OK, what happened to secondary kids?"
Linda:In addition to providing practical information for improving literacy for this age group, you share successful evidence-based programs and practices that can be tailored to the needs of teachers working with struggling adolescent readers.
Lou:Yes, each chapter includes a list of web resources and suggested small group activities to encourage implementation. It's just hot off the pressas a matter of fact, it came out in Decemberso it's only been out a couple of months and the information is very current.
Linda:Congratulations again and best wishes for getting the word out on helping adolescent learners.
The book is published through Routledge Press. For more information go to: www.informaworld.com