Close comprehension gaps by centering students—and the books they read

When students don't understand a text, what should teachers do? Team Up With the Text: A Practical Guide to Analyzing—and Improving—Students' Comprehension offers a field-tested framework for supporting reading comprehension—one that unites the science of reading, data-driven instruction, and the heart of English class itself: the rich, complex works students read.

The book explores the idea that the problem isn’t that students can’t “find the main idea,” but that we’ve been analyzing reading the wrong way. It offers a model for supporting reading comprehension, charting a course away from reteaching isolated reading standards and toward practice that is both research-aligned and practically sound. Reading student work can tell us how students struggled, but analyzing their texts can tell us why.

Readers will find:

• A systematic alternative to repeatedly reteaching isolated reading skills like inference without measurable student gains
• Step-by-step guidance for diagnosing the root causes of comprehension breakdowns through close analysis of student work
• Methods for making student thinking visible so educators can respond to it with precision
• Strategies for designing targeted response lessons that address specific gaps
• Real classroom examples demonstrating how teachers across grade levels have applied the framework to raise achievement

Written for English teachers, literacy coaches, and instructional leaders who embrace the science of reading and are looking for what comes next, this book delivers a new, research-based approach to diagnosing comprehension problems and responding with precision.

STEPHEN CHIGER is Senior Director of 5-12 Humanities at Uncommon Schools. Named the 2015 Educator of the Year by the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, he has helped thousands of educators strengthen evidence-based literacy instruction across the United States and internationally.

PAUL BAMBRICK-SANTOYO is Founder and Dean of the Leverage Leadership Institute, where 100,000 school leaders have been trained worldwide, including hundreds of schools that have gone on to become the highest-gaining or highest-achieving schools in their districts, states and/or countries.