Books with three red blobs (• • •) are particularly recommended.

• • • Teaching Assistants: Practical Strategies for Effective Classroom Support - by Maggie Balshaw and Peter Farrell - This practical book is intended to support schools and LEAs in developing effective strategies in working with teaching assistants. It is related to the DfEE's Good Practice Guide (2000). Suggested approaches are supported with real examples from practice, showing the reality of how schools can review and develop practice and so become more effective in their management and support of teaching assistants. The aim is to enable managers in schools and LEAs to work effectively with teaching assistants; teachers to plan classroom approaches for working with teaching assistants; teaching assistants to improve their practice; and children to learn more effectively in inclusive settings. This book will be of use to headteachers, senior staff in schools, SENCOs, LEA support staff, class teachers and teaching assistants. USA | UK

• • • Assisting Learning and Supporting Teaching: A Practical Guide for the Teaching Assistant in the Classroom by Anne Watkinson - The central aim of this book is to give Teaching Assistants (TAs) an insight into the theories of teaching and learning which they now need to fulfil their role, including looking at the TA as both learner and teacher. The book also takes a look at school policies, structures and systems in order to give basic context and to help promote partnership with teachers and managers in schools. It explains the current learning initiatives in schools such as inclusion, the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, as well as concerns such as accountability and inspection within the context of the whole curriculum of a school. The author offers advice on personal development, explaining what training is available to TAs and how to ask for this. The book can be used by TAs, TA mentors and others in schools who work with TAs. USA | UK

• • • Supporting Literacy: A Guide for Primary Classroom Assistants by Kate Grant - Classroom assistants are increasingly relied upon to support the most needy pupils, and they have had significantly less training than their colleagues with qualified teacher status. It is clear that these assistants need some very practical materials. The book provides a large section of photocopiable resources so that classroom assistants can get to work. The book will cover all they need to know about literacy; it will explain, in very simple terms, what is expected from them and: * How the National Literacy Strategy works * How to support reading, writing and spelling * How to select fiction and non-fiction * How to help children use computers It also covers issues such as: * How to help children for whom English is not their first language * How to help children with special needs * How to set targets and monitor progress. USA | UK

• • • Supporting Language and Literacy 3 - 8: A Practical Guide for Assistants in Classrooms and Nurseries by Suzi Clipson-Boyles - written to help assistants in nursery and Key Stage One classrooms to focus on how children learn language and literacy skills in different contexts. It covers the language and literacy curriculum from the Early Learning Goals to the Key Stage One statutory assessments, and includes reference to the Foundation Stage guidelines, the National Curriculum, the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) and the Additional Literacy Support (ALS). Photocopiable sheets provide opportunities for the reader to engage in reflective and interactive activities throughout the book and optional extension tasks are provided for group training. This is an ideal handbook for trainers and trainees on Teaching Assistant, BTEC and NNEB courses. USA | UK

• • • Supporting Literacy and Numeracy: A Guide for Learning Support Assistants by Glenys Fox and Marion Halliwell - A practical guide to the ways in which the Learning Support Assistant can effectively support the class teacher with regard to literacy and numeracy frameworks. The authors provide a description of the roles and responsibilities of the learning support assistant and its effect of raising standards in schools; illustrate how children learn through the literacy and numeracy frameworks; and describe how learning support assistants can support children in the literacy class and mathematics. USA | UK

• • Supporting Children with Behavior Difficulties: a Guide for Assistants in Schools by Glenys Fox - This practical guide is written to help assistants in supporting children who have behavioral difficulties. The author provides: a description of the role of the assistant in working with the class teacher to enable children to learn good behavior in schools; a clear description of the range of behavior difficulties; and information on strategies that work in managing behavior. The book should be useful for any assistant working directly with children, as all assistants in the course of their work need to develop a repertoire of effective strategies for managing behavior. It should be particularly helpful for assistants who work routinely with children who present behavior problems as it guides understanding and provides a helpful framework for knowing where to start, what to do and how to do it. The books should also prove to be a valuable resource in the training of assistants. (Comment: This helpful book would have been improved by including some information about children's diet, which has been found to have a noticeable effect on their behavior - John Bradford). USA | UK

• • • How to Reach and Teach Children and Teens with Dyslexia by Cynthia Stowe - comprehensive, practical resource giving educators at all levels essential information, techniques, and tools for understanding dyslexia and adapting teaching methods in all subject areas. Over 50 full-page activity sheets that can be photocopied for immediate use and interviews with students and adults who have had personal experience with dyslexia. Organized into twenty sections, information covers everything from ten principles of instruction to teaching reading, handwriting, spelling, writing, math, everyday skills, and even covers the adult with dyslexia. USA | UK


• Spelling Smart! - a ready-to-use activities program for students with spelling difficulties, by Cynthia Stowe.
USA | UK

• • Teaching Kids with Learning Difficulties in the Regular Classroom - Strategies and techniques to use to challenge and motivate struggling students. Susan Winebrenner, Free Spirit Publishing, 1996. Ph. 1-800-735-7323. ISBN 157542004X
USA | UK

• Phonics from A to Z: A Practical Guide - Everything you wanted to know about phonics but were afraid to ask! This practical handbook, written by an early reading specialist, will show you how to build engaging, effective phonics practice into your reading-writing program. Lots of ready-to-use lessons, word lists, games and learning center ideas (K-3). USA

• Strategy Instruction for Increasing Reading Comprehension - Edwin S. Ellis describes the paraphrasing strategy that has been demonstrated to increase reading comprehension skills for adolescents with learning disabilities.

• Strategy Instruction for Problem-solving Unknown Words - Edwin S. Ellis Offers several strategies for building word attack skills.

• Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills - Judith R. Birsh, Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. - 1999 ISBN 1557663491. - Dr. Judith Birsh has succeeded in bringing together the expertise of a constellation of respected and well-known contributors to produce what will undoubtedly become a highly prized and much-used text/reference book in the field of dyslexia and learning differences.
USA | UK

• Making the Writing Process Work - Strategies for Composition and Self-Regulation - Describes an integrative approach to writing instruction for students with diverse abilities and backgrounds in the elementary and middle grades. USA

• • To Teach A Dyslexic - by Don McCabe - a compelling autobiography illustrating what it is like to grow up dyslexic. He was born in 1932 and this was well before "dyslexia" was a term, let alone a diagnosis. He was just treated as a boy who couldn't sit still. He credits his older sister and others who worked intensively with him to help him learn to read and eventually to become a respected scholar. USA

• SensAble Strategies - Provides practical, creative strategies that will help you reach all the students in your classroom. SenseAble Strategies provides sensible ideas that address learning styles in a way that will enhance students' abilities to learn.

• The Dyslexic Scholar: Helping your Child Succeed in the School System - by Kathleen Nosek. If you are looking for a book that explains dyslexia and how to cut through the red tape at school, this is the book. I finally found some answers to my questions about dyslexia and what I need to do to get my child help. Ms. Nosek's book is very parent friendly. She gives you wonderful advice in a step by step fashion. I found the most useful part of the book to be the section on the federal laws (she gives you the public law number) that the schools must obey. I finally know what my rights are! You should read this book if you are having any problems getting your child services. I think it would be useful to any parent of a child with a learning disability.(A reader from Newport Beach, California) USA | UK

• Phonemic Awareness in Young Children - A Classroom Curriculum - Phonemic awareness - distinguishing the individual sounds that make up words and affect their meanings - is an essential preliteracy skill, and a hot topic in education today. This supplemental curriculum is brimming with engaging, adaptable language activities proven to increase phonemic awareness. Use them in any preschool, kindergarten, or first-grade classroom. Its developmental sequence builds on simple listening games and gradually moves on to more advanced sound manipulation exercises like rhyming, alliteration, and segmentation. USA

• Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program (LIPS) - and Seeing Stars - stimulates phonemic awareness. Individuals become aware of the mouth actions which produce speech sounds. This awareness becomes the means of verifying sounds within words and enables individuals to become self-correcting in reading, spelling, and speech.

• • Inclusive High Schools - Learning from Contemporary Classrooms - by Fisher, Sax and Pumpian; from LD Online. USA | UK

• The Bangor Dyslexia Teaching System - E. Miles, Whurr Publishers 3rd Edition 1997 (recommended by Juliet Freud, Dyslexia Parents Group, dyslexia@canada.com - 'good examples of work with phonics.') USA | UK

• Multisensory Reading, Spelling & Penmanship Program CD-ROM - This multisensory reading, spelling and penmanship CD-ROM program builds an association between symbols and sounds in the English language through self-paced repetition. It utilizes the close association of visual, auditory and kinesthetic elements to help students improve their language skills. The beginning of the program assumes the student does not know the letters of the alphabet. The program then proceeds to teach all the skills one needs to read on a sixth grade level. Orton-Gillingham approach.

• How to Teach your Dyslexic Child to Read - by Bernice H. Baumer. Readers can learn how to structure lessons in order to connect with a dyslexic child. This book uses accessible terms along with charts, graphics, and lesson plans. It is broken down into three functional sections: a discussion of learning disabilities; an explanation of how to teach the dyslexic to read, step by step from kindergarten through the first, second and third grades (giving detailed instructions for teaching phonics, spelling, and syllabication); and a section devoted to pictures, charts, and word lists that are an integral part of tutoring the child. ') USA | UK

• Let's write: a Ready-to-use Activities Program for Learners with Special Needs - by Cynthia Stowe - Starting with simple words and progressing to sentences, paragraphs, reports, stories, and essays, Let's Write! Takes into account all ability levels and learning styles to help each student achieve success. Basic to more advanced skills are presented sequentially in lessons that devote small amounts of time to four diverse tasks. The program provides over 200 activities and over 100 worksheets, and is organized into two parts: Part I - focuses on teaching the basic structures of written language in seven sections: Words, Sentences, Paragraphs, Research Reports, Book Reports, Stories, and Essays. Part II - offers a combination of specific skills development and opportunities for practice in nine sections: Grammar, Editing, Poetry, Literature Connection, Holidays, Letters, Using the Newspaper, Real Life Writing, and Gimmicks & Gags. USA | UK

• Tregear Books - valuable series of multi-sensory phonics books which can be photocopied. One book - 'Mnemonics' - is especially helpful in dealing with spelling errors commonly made by dyslexic children and teens, e.g. because, said and enough.

• • • Alpha to Omega - by Beve Hornsby. Well recommended phonics manual used very widely in UK schools, listing words in their phonic groupings. 'I just wanted to say that I find "Alpha to Omega" really good to use. ' (V.L., UK) There are only a few words which differ from English to American spellings (e.g. color/colour), and this book is recommended for classroom assistants and teachers worldwide. UK

• • Overcoming Dyslexia - Yale neuroscientist Sally Shaywitz demystifies the roots of dyslexia and offers parents and educators hope that children with reading problems can be helped. Shaywitz delves deeply into how dyslexia occurs, explaining that magnetic resonance imaging has helped scientists trace the disability to a weakness in the language system at the phonological level. According to Shaywitz, science now has clear evidence that the brain of the dyslexic reader is activated in a different area than that of the non-impaired reader. Interestingly, the dyslexic reader may be strong in reasoning, problem solving and critical thinking, but invariably lacks phonemic awareness-the ability to break words apart into distinct sounds-which is critical in order to crack the reading code. The good news, Shaywitz claims, is that with the use of effective training programs, the brain can be rewired and dyslexic children can learn to read. She walks parents through ways to help children develop phonemic awareness, become fluent readers, and exercise the area of the brain essential for reading success. Sally Shaywittz, MD, discusses dyslexia in children and adults. Book: USA | UK

• Glue Ear by Lindsay Peer.
Glue Ear is a common condition among young children but until recently its long-term effects on learning and achievement weren't fully understood. Lindsay Peer's research has found significant links between the condition and dyslexia. As well as helping teachers to understand the potential consequences of temporary hearing loss, this book will be useful for health professionals who may be aware of the medical implications of Glue Ear but not the educational reverberations. Similarly, parents of children who have the condition will appreciate the accessible, jargon-free text and practical, credible ideas.
USA | UK

• Wilson Reading System - also known as the Wilson Language Program (USA).

• Scholastic 'Little Red Toolbox' - (very slow to download) Recommended Literacy Manipulative Program (USA). 'Powerful new literacy manipulative program based on research on how children learn to read, using interactive learning that involves visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities.'

• Learning Staircase - Ros Lugg is a specialist teacher and assessor, specializing in learning disabilities (including dyslexia). She and several colleagues set up a resource company to provide resources and support for both children and adults. The resources are designed to be used by specialist teachers, speech/language therapists, tutors, classroom assistants or parents who wish to work with their own children. Most of the materials are game-based and detailed instructions are provided. The resources concentrate on developing the pre-literacy and early literacy skills and there is a teaching manual which can teach parents how to teach alphabet knowledge and spelling and reading skills. Individual advice is available by e-mail. The Learning Staircase also retails leading international software for literacy and numeracy. Ros’s company are particularly proud that many New Zealand schools, speech language therapists, SPELD tutors and parents are now using these materials with great success.