¶ … Solid Ground, by Sharon Taberski By intelligently using her ten years of primary level teaching experience as a foundation and a resource, Sharon Taberski has achieved an extraordinary level of excellence in her field, according to Shelly Harwayne -- a colleague of Sharon's at Manhattan New School. Shelly, writing in the Foreword of On Solid Ground, asserts that Sharon makes "literacy teaching look easy," because she is well prepared, well organized, and is continually searching for a better way to carry out her work teaching children to read.

Sharon points out in the book's Introduction that the teaching of reading, and the act of learning how to read, "are complex endeavors," but those challenges can be met, she states (page xvi), by pursuing practices and strategies that are "purposeful and connected." And precisely how does she go about establishing a good solid footing with students -- especially those struggling with reading? In Chapter 1, readers begin to learn how Sharon succeeds; for one thing, she sees the student as a whole person, and selects the books to be read -- and the subjects to be discussed -- based on "topics and experiences he could relate to." For another, she eschews heavy reliance on phonics, and rather, blends "meaning, language structure, and phonics," into strategies and contexts that the child enjoys and understands. Her philosophy embraces the "meaning-making" activity that reading should be -- not just a mechanical exercise that everyone "must" go through -- but rather an experience in which...

when a child knowledgeable about dinosaurs reads a book about them, she expects to find information that affirms and extends what she already knows" (page 3). And from that previous knowledge base (hence the title of the book, On Solid Ground), Sharon can teach strategies based on the axiom that "Learning proceeds from the known to the new," rather than learning being launched for the child from the "unknown" -- learning a new subject and learning reading skills simultaneously. Throughout her initial chapter, Sharon does not necessarily put forth esoteric or complex tactics; rather, she offers nuts and bolts practical tips like mentioning the "Letter-Sound" Relationships" that work, and "Learning through Analogy" (a student who can spell "other," therefore also can spell "brother," "another," "mother"), and by pointing out that real reading experiences should incorporate "large blocks of time."
Some of the sage and constructive advice she give readers is not specific to "reading" per se, but in fact has to do with effective teaching: " ... so many teachers cling to the notion of the more taught, the more learned," she points out on page 6, and she goes on to criticize the approach some take, "that by telling children information, we can make them learn."

Meanwhile, as to goal-setting, Sharon, in Chapter 2, defines her goals: she wants students…