Nancy Frey is a professor in educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. She is a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator in California. She is a member of the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Research Panel. Her published titles include 50 Strategies for Activating Your PLC+, The Illustrated Guide to Visible Learning, Welcome to Teaching Multilingual Learners, Teaching Foundational Skills to Adolescent Readers, and RIGOR Unveiled: A Video-Enhanced Flipbook to Promote Teacher Expertise in Relationship Building, Instruction, Goals, Organization, and Relevance. Douglas Fisher is professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Doug was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He is a credentialed English teacher and administrator in California. In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy Research Association. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, leadership, and curriculum design, as well as books such as The Teacher Clarity Playbook (2nd ed.), Your Introduction to PLC+, The Illustrated Guide to Teacher Credibility, Instructional Strategies to Move Learning Forward: 50+ Tools That Support Gradual Release of Responsibility, and Welcome to Teaching!
One would think that the first place to look when wanting information about the Common Core State Standards would be, well, the Common Core State Standards. The fact is, though, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey are quickly becoming the go-to folks for information on teaching these standards. They've proven this again in Rigorous Reading. This is certainly a book to be added to your collection of books that attend to the demands of the CCSS. -- Kylene Beers, Ed.D. With Rigorous Reading Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey have provided literacy educators who are committed to successfully raising the bar with solutions that make sense. The book is masterfully developed with an extensive reach across many grade levels in terms of defining what it means to provide intentional instruction and teaching text complexity. The five access points are discussed pragmatically with evidence of a solid research base deftly woven throughout the book. This is the most practical book I have come across in terms of providing teachers with the knowledge base and assistance many are seeking to improve their instruction with regard to complex texts. -- Steven L. Layne, Ed.D., Professor of Literacy Education In Rigorous Reading: 5 Access Points for Helping Students Comprehend Complex Texts, Fisher and Frey help teachers understand how to bring vigor to rigor. They teach us how to help students understand more from their complex texts -- greater understanding that will help to bring life and energy to each student's reading. Rooted in solid research, this is book is a must-read for those grappling with how to translate the recommendations and mandates around text complexity from the Common Core into instructional practices. -- Jennifer Serravallo author of Teaching Reading in Small Groups and Conferring with Readers In a time when nearly every state has adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), we need resources that show us how to support students in developing their full literacy potential. In this very practical and insightful book, Fisher and Frey examine how CCSS conceptions of text complexity are causing us to shift some of our ideas about reading instruction. Rigorous Reading is an important resource that will help teachers align reading instruction with the CCSS in powerful ways. -- Linda B. Gambrell, Professor This is a bold book... Its genius, and its unique contribution, is in bringing the balance and the centeredness to this new game in town-the Common Core. -- P. David Pearson, Professor of the Graduate School of Education