As recession-driven budget cuts force many school districts to do more professional development with fewer resources, local self-directed efforts are likely to increase substantially. To help our members meet this challenge, IRA will publish 23 new and revised books during the fall academic term.
These releases, all of which have undergone rigorous peer review, cover a broad range of topics, including new titles on comprehension, vocabulary, literacy coaching, adolescent literacy, adult literacy, social and cultural contexts, urban literacy education, assessment, and program development. (See pages 37–40 of this issue for a complete listing.)
A new edition of Doug Buehl’s top-selling Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning is planned, as are new professional development editions of What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction and Understanding and Using Reading Assessment, K–12. These Professional Development editions, developed in response to feedback from school-based program directors, contain question sets and ancillary readings to support study groups.
Rounding out the fall list is the line of new and revised titles from the well-known New Standards series, which IRA now publishes in conjunction with the National Center on Education and the Economy and the University of Pittsburgh. Revised editions of the Using Rubrics to Improve Student Writing books will be offered, as will an all-new work, Reading and Writing With Understanding: Comprehension in Fourth and Fifth Grades.
Corinne Mooney, IRA’s executive editor for books, is excited by the fall list. "It’s probably the strongest mix of books that we’ve had to date," she said. "We have some textbooks, some classroom strategy, and some practical-oriented works. We also have books that are specifically meant for a facilitator to use in professional development."
As Mooney sees it, peer review is the key to the high-quality content of IRA publications. "Our reviewers, who include teacher educators, literacy researchers, and classroom practitioners, assess manuscripts for research methodology and timeliness. We look at the best fit and who would provide the best feedback based on topical area and audience," she explained.
The Association is constantly looking for new works of enduring significance to the profession, and IRA is very enthusiastic about its "value proposition" as a publisher. Dan Mangan, IRA’s director of publications, described value proposition as the answer to the question "If I’m thinking of writing a book, why should I publish it with IRA?"
He answered, "Our value proposition boils down to this: We offer the imprimatur of a learned society that is exclusively dedicated to literacy issues. We also invest comparatively greater efforts in improving draft manuscripts through developmental and copy editing, guided by peer review. In many commercial houses this level of attention is considered ‘overhead’ and is frequently shortened or eliminated altogether. Finally, we offer first-in-time marketing advantages to a select membership base."
It is not difficult to find IRA authors who appreciate this effort. "Our experiences with the International Reading Association’s publications division have been exceptional," said Karen D. Wood, professor and graduate reading program coordinator at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.
"From cover design to copy editing, the editorial staff stayed on top of our project with no lags in response time and immediate attention to our needs as authors," Wood added. "Together we met every deadline necessary to get our recent book, Guiding Readers Through Text: Strategy Guides for New Times, in the hands of IRA members."
Lesley Mandel Morrow, professor of literacy and chair of the Department of Learning and Teaching at Rutgers the State University of New Jersey, agreed that working with IRA publications is a special experience: "It is special because the organization is respected and extremely professional. It is respected because of its high standards. It is more difficult to get work accepted by IRA than other publishers."
She also appreciated the personal touch. "The publications department is highly professional, and a joy to work with. I will continue to submit material to IRA for publication. I know that I won’t always be successful, but when I do have the privilege of being published, I will know that my work is really good, that it has had excellent editing, wonderful design, and that it will be an excellent experience working with those who make it possible."
Anne Fullerton, assistant director of publications, pointed out that the Association’s author outreach efforts are broad based. "We have a wonderful mixture of authors. Some are well-known names in the field, while others are up and coming figures, new to the field and new to publishing." Moreover, the timeliness of IRA offerings is paramount.
"We have books signed into 2012," Fullerton said.
At a time when school budgets and state education spending have been reduced in response to a tight economy—and with the increasing cost of gas making travel to seminars expensive—IRA is offering two special professional development packages designed for use in school-based learning communities.
What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction, third edition, edited by Alan E. Farstrup and S. Jay Samuels, and Understanding and Using Reading Assessment, K–12 by Peter Afflerbach, are previously published works in new professional development editions.
Each package will include one copy of the book, a printed facilitator’s guide, and a CD that will include the chapters from the book and supplementary materials, according to Corinne Mooney, IRA’s executive editor for books. Each facilitator’s guide includes very specific information for each book such as abstracts of each chapter to give a quick overview, discussion questions, and extension activities, she said.
As Anne Fullerton, assistant director of publications, explained, the packages will include everything a professional development facilitator needs to use the text easily in a school-based discussion group. A facilitator can e-mail the chapters to the participants in the book group as pdf attachments or print and circulate that content rather than having to photocopy sections of the book.
The guides will include practical information about how to track activities for clock hour requirements and how to be accountable for professional development to school administrators.
Newly revised titles in the well-known New Standards series will now be published by IRA under a recent agreement with the University of Pittsburgh and the National Center on Education and the Economy. These updated editions are being offered to new audiences at a price they can afford.
More than 20 states, 6 large school districts, and more than 600 teachers assisted in the standards and assessment development work, which began in the 1990s.
"The project worked across disciplines with the idea of setting performance standards for children in different subject areas," explained Anne Fullerton, assistant publications director at IRA. "The standards are geared to formative rather than summative assessments to guide teaching and learning. They underlie many state and district standards across the country."
The exciting aspect of these books, Fullerton said, is the use of copious examples of student work. "The authors include not only samples of exceptional work, but also samples of work that falls below standard. And then they describe what this student would benefit from in terms of instruction. It’s all about improving instruction."
The series ranges from PreK to grade 5 and there is a discount price for the various book packages—the Reading and Writing package, the Primary Literacy package, and the Using Rubrics package. Two of the books come with accompanying DVDs so you get to see and hear the students as well.
IRA also will publish a new book which grew out of the project—Reading and Writing With Understanding: Comprehension in Fourth and Fifth Grades.
Teacher educator, editor, and author Dorothy S. Strickland is excited about this new offering. "These critical grades are often neglected."
Strickland said the New Standards materials are good for both inservice and preservice levels and can offset what she called a "trend toward mindless teaching to the test."
"These materials address accountability in ways that provide teachers with the knowledge and skills to help students demonstrate their abilities in the short term, while providing the basis for long-term literacy development."
IRA's fall book list supports on-site professional development (August 2008), Reading Today 26(1), 36.
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