Executive Skills and Reading Comprehension: A Guide for Educators

This pioneering book is now in a revised and expanded second edition featuring the latest neuroscientific knowledge and instructional strategies. Kelly B. Cartwright provides a teacher-friendly explanation of executive skills; such as planning, organisation, cognitive flexibility, and impulse control; and their role in reading comprehension. Detailed examples illustrate how each skill is deployed by strong comprehenders and ways to tailor instruction for students who are struggling. The companion website features reproducible planning and assessment forms from the book as well as supplemental card sorts to teach and assess cognitive flexibility, all ready to download and print in a convenient 8½“ x 11” size.

New to This Edition

• Updated throughout with advances in theory, research, and instruction.
• Chapter on word recognition, with particular attention to dyslexia.
• Information on the development of the brain's reading network.
• Expanded emphasis on oral language comprehension.
• Appendix of intervention studies; online-only supplement with card sorts to teach and assess cognitive flexibility.

Suitable for K–12 classroom teachers, reading specialists, literacy coaches, and special educators; school psychologists; teacher educators and graduate students; and literacy researchers.

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Table of Contents

Foreword, Nell K. Duke

Preface

Prologue: Linking the New with the Old: How Are Familiar Reading Skills and Strategies Related to Executive Skills?

1. Executive Skills: What Are They, and Why Are They Important for Developing Thinking Readers? sample
2. Plans and Goals: Getting Ready to Read
3. Organization: Why Text and Reader Organization Matter
4. Cognitive Flexibility: Juggling Multiple Aspects of Reading
5. Working Memory: Holding and Linking Ideas in Mind While Reading
6. Inhibition and Impulse Control: Resisting Distractions to Support Comprehension
7. Social Understanding: The Importance of Mind Reading for Reading Comprehension
8. Executive Skills, Word Recognition, and Dyslexia: Cracking the Code Is Complicated, Too

Appendix A: Rubric for Assessing Executive Skills in Observations of Your Students’ Reading Behavior

Appendix B: List of Games That Require Behaviors Related to the Executive Skills Described in This Book

Appendix C: List of Executive Skill-Based Intervention Studies That Resulted in Improvements in Reading

Children's Literature Cited

References

Index

"I was excited to discover the first edition of this book, and immediately started implementing the strategies from the Cognitive Flexibility chapter with my students. Subsequently, I was thrilled to learn that the second edition would have an entire chapter dedicated to word recognition and dyslexia. This book gives teachers, tutors, and reading interventionists simple strategies for weaving executive skill work into their current interventions. Speech–language pathologists will gain exciting new tools for supporting students with reading and executive functioning challenges. Cartwright provides specific tasks for improving impulse control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and more. This second edition is an essential resource for any educator interested in helping students become better readers and thinkers."
- Carolee Dean, MS, CCC-SLP, CALT, speech–language pathologist and certified academic language therapist, private practice, Midland, Texas

"As researchers, teachers, and reading specialists, we constantly seek ways to help our striving readers. Cartwright provides practical, accessible, and engaging tools to build readers' executive skills. Equally important, Cartwright deftly and thoroughly builds our understanding of research so we can better understand how executive skills are related to word reading and reading comprehension difficulties. Cartwright's ability to bridge research and practice has made this book a favorite of the future reading specialists in our graduate program!"
- Katherine Hilden, PhD, School of Teacher Education and Leadership, Radford University

"With a warm and welcoming tone, this book is grounded in real experience in education settings. Cartwright excels in communicating complex research to practitioners in a way that neither oversimplifies nor overwhelms, and that addresses the reader as an active participant. Particular strengths are the book's breadth of coverage, the bridges made between often-siloed areas of research, and the wealth of practical tips and examples. The second edition will be valuable both for scholars who want a comprehensive, engaging overview of this area and for practitioners seeking new ideas for instruction and intervention."
- Nicola Yuill, PhD, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, United Kingdom