The Reading Zone, 2nd Edition: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers

Decades of expert teaching and thoughtful observation of readers inform this expanded second edition of The Reading Zone. Dynamic teaching and writing partners, mother and daughter Atwell and Atwell Merkel show how to teach reading as a personal art—a way to develop passionate, critical readers for life—and how to build a schoolwide reading culture on self-selected, voluminous reading. The authors describe the top ten conditions for making engaged classroom reading possible for students at all levels and share the ideas and structures that have helped their own students succeed.

Long advocates of frequent, voluminous reading in schools, the authors draw on evidence gathered in 20 years of classroom teaching to make the case for reading workshop more powerful than ever. The book establishes the top ten conditions for making engaged classroom reading possible for students at all levels and provides the practical support and structures necessary for achieving them.