Rating: 
Summary: Powerful, changed the way I think about teaching reading!!
Review: A must buy! I was given this book by my school system. So many practical ideas for teaching reading. I even made up worksheets to accompany this book. You will not be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: Teaching reading comprehension---must have this book
Review: After 20+ years in regular classroom and special education teaching, this is a book that brings new strategies to expand the thinking of the teacher and the students. I love to read and want to have my students both comprehend and think at a deep level and love to read. My current teaching assignment is a 4th/5th grade classroom. This book has 40 strategy lessons for understanding texts that can be adapted to hundreds of books and expand your teaching. There is an extensive, user friendly, list of favorite books for introducing and guiding practice in a given strategy. This is especially helpful to teachers from 2nd to 8th grade including Science, Social Studies or Language Arts teachers at middle school level.There are ways to use short text to better comprehend text in social studies, science and other content areas. There are examples of student work, illustrations, scripts of conversations, selection of response options for students to demonstrate their use of strategies, and mini lessons that are adaptable to many books and resources that you currenly use but could teach in a more proficient way. This book joins a short collection of my favorites-Brian Cambourne's book on retelling, Lucy Calkin's Art of Teaching Writing, Mosaic of Thought, and a book on classroom community.
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Summary: These strategies empower students to improve comprehension.
Review: At first glance, it is easy to be a bit cynical when you see a book entitled "Strategies That Work," especially when it deals with the subject of teaching students to read. I have to admit I was, until I started reading this book and putting into practice Harvey and Goudvis' common-sense strategies for empowering students to make meaning from what they have read. So many of our children can decode, and are as fluent as we are, yet when it comes to comprehension, inferencing, and extending meaning, they are completely lost. Not any more; Strategies at Work to the rescue! There isn't enough room to review all of my favorite strategies, but I will offer one; for me, Chapter 8, which deals with Visualizing and Inferring is worth the price of the book. The authors walk you through how to get students to visualize, or as they so elequently put it "make movies in your mind," as a way of establishing connections with text in order to improve comprehension. In the section entitled "Inferential Thinking: Reading Between the Lines," teachers are given strategies to model and help students think more abstractly in order to extend meaning, which is a skill that many of the state standardized tests are requiring our students to do. "Strategies that Work" is one of the few books I have read that actually deliver on what they promise. Recommended for teachers K-12.
Rating:
Summary: These strategies empower students to improve comprehension.
Review: At first glance, it is easy to be a bit cynical when you see a book entitled "Strategies That Work," especially when it deals with the subject of teaching students to read. I have to admit I was, until I started reading this book and putting into practice Harvey and Goudvis' common-sense strategies for empowering students to make meaning from what they have read. So many of our children can decode, and are as fluent as we are, yet when it comes to comprehension, inferencing, and extending meaning, they are completely lost. Not any more; Strategies at Work to the rescue! There isn't enough room to review all of my favorite strategies, but I will offer one; for me, Chapter 8, which deals with Visualizing and Inferring is worth the price of the book. The authors walk you through how to get students to visualize, or as they so elequently put it "make movies in your mind," as a way of establishing connections with text in order to improve comprehension. In the section entitled "Inferential Thinking: Reading Between the Lines," teachers are given strategies to model and help students think more abstractly in order to extend meaning, which is a skill that many of the state standardized tests are requiring our students to do. "Strategies that Work" is one of the few books I have read that actually deliver on what they promise. Recommended for teachers K-12.
Rating:
Summary: "Yes, this one is worth the time!"
Review: Elemenatary teachers: READ THIS BOOK! I know, I know! ANOTHER book about teaching strategies! Haven't we (as teachers) read enough? The answer is no if you want to improve/create your reading program! I have taught 6th grade for 7 years and I was always unhappy with my reading programs. To add to my frustration, I began to support new teachers in the BTSA program who desperatly needed my help in creating an effective reading program for their classroom. Fortunately, my school decided to reorganize our instruction to focus on Guided Reading. That is when I found this book! Strategies that work is not just another list of strategies that need to be taught. It SHOWS you how to plan and implement lessons that will engage children and teach reading comprehension strategies. My favorite chapter was 8 beacuse it specifically dealt with inferring and this is an important piece for 6th graders in reading and writing. Don't worry - it's an easy read that IS worth your time. Don't let the title lull you into thinking it is just another "teacher text". Side Bar: Try to read it with another teacher, the discussions you will have will be invaluable!!!
Rating:
Summary: Teach Reading for Meaning Effectively in your Classoom
Review: For every teacher who has ever been overwhelmed at the idea of "teaching
reading" to students, Strategies that Work-Teaching Comprehension to enhance
Understanding, is a book for you. The authors, Stephanie Harvey and Anne
Goudvis, tackle the enormous task of illustrating what teaching students to
read for understanding can look like in the classroom setting. The book
discusses five comprehension strategies that are vital for creating meaning
from text: Making Connections; Questioning; Visualizing and inferring;
Determining Importance in Text; and Synthesizing Information. What separates
this book from others you may have read is the actual classroom application
that the authors offer readers. Any teacher who reads this book will begin to
understand how these strategies can be implemented into his/her own classroom
practices. This is an invaluable tool for any teacher regardless of grade
level.
Rating:
Summary: A Must for Reading Teachers
Review: I found this book very useful for teaching reading in my small groups. The authors give some good ideas for classroom teachers to use "authentic literature" in order to teach reading comprehension which can include newspapers and magazines. The appendices are worth the price of the book. The only reason I downgraded it a bit is the authors could have done away with some of the whole language rhetoric about traditional basals and basic skills being "boring." This is nonsensical and detracts somewhat from the general usefulness of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Bad, With Some Good Information
Review: I found this book very useful for teaching reading in my small groups. The authors give some good ideas for classroom teachers to use "authentic literature" in order to teach reading comprehension which can include newspapers and magazines. The appendices are worth the price of the book. The only reason I downgraded it a bit is the authors could have done away with some of the whole language rhetoric about traditional basals and basic skills being "boring." This is nonsensical and detracts somewhat from the general usefulness of the book.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read for All Reading Teachers
Review: If you really would like to know HOW to teach reading comprehension, this book is for you! Steph and Anne pick up where Ellin Keene's Mosaic of Thought left off. This book tells how to teach kids to think while reading (through think-alouds) and gives many minilessons for teaching comprehension. Besides the great lessons and tips, there are numerous resources listing picture books to use for teaching each of the seven comprehension strategies discussed first in Mosaic and now in this great book. I've already tried many ideas in Strategies That Work and have had tremendous success with them. I highly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: These Strategies DO Work!
Review: This book tells how to teach your students to think while reading (through think-alouds) and gives many minilessons for teaching comprehension. This book is divided into three parts: Part 1, THE FOUNDATIONS OF MEANING, explains how research based comprehension strategies support and enhance student learning; Part 2, STRATEGY LESSONS AND MORE, focuses on strategy lessons, response options, and assessment practices; Part 3, RESOURCES THAT SUPPORT STRATEGY INSTRUCTION, numerous resources listing picture books to use for teaching each of the seven comprehension strategies. Throughout the book, the author's talk about "anchor lessons" and the importance of using the first lessons as a way for students to remember a specific strategy and apply it. The idea of anchor lessons really assist the student in learning and applying the strategies taught! This book teaches us that we want our students to come to realize how important their thinking is when they read. A must have for reading teachers!
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