Know Better, Do Better

by Meredith Liben

Know Better, Do Better

Genres: Education, Teaching, Professional Development, Parenting, School

174 pages, Paperback

Published May 31, 2019

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for anyone who teaches Kindergarten through 5th grade and highly recommended for all elementary school parents. David Liben and Meredith Liben use stories from their years as teachers at The Family Academy along with current summaries of the research on reading to clearly lay out what all children need to become good readers in the early grades and beyond.
I appreciated the appendices at the end of each chapter highlighting sources for deeper learning and teaching and all of the stories of real students in their care. A delightful and insightful how-to manual for teaching the foundational skills of reading well. Bravo!

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this with some colleagues as a book study. Very enlightening, definitely made us think about our current classroom practices. We are currently thinking about how we can improve upon those practices for the upcoming school year.

[Becky Bollinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend, especially for those new to teaching reading/phonics. Accessible, practical, and based on the Science of Reading.

[Alida Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very basic start for those new to teaching reading or those nee to the science of teaching reading. Easy and quick read with some good resources, definitely needs to be supplemented with more in depth material though.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great book that gives a clear and accurate description of how we should teach foundational reading.

[Joel Bangerter]

If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me “tHEy dONt tEAcH PhOnicS ANyMore” I’d have like $20.

Very helpful read for my phonics class, and I usually hate reading education books.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every elementary school teacher should read this book…all the data and research and ideas for helping kids learn to read are here. Reading isn’t going to just happen (Whole Language makes even less sense than it ever did now), but the authors use data to show what will.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have immersed myself in the skills part of early reading this year, and this book was a great tool to use to read further into information about phonics. It gave lots of resources and ideas.

[Lindsay Steele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read a better book for elementary educators. I want to buy it for all the staff at my school. Having spent the last 6 years begging my district to replace the terrible reading curriculum they adopted, this was a breath of fresh air and inspired me to keep trying!
It is both engaging and clear, with very little academic jargon. It is full of concrete ideas and free resources. It is honest, research and evidence-based, and clearly has the goal of making us all better teachers so that all of our students can learn to read! I must’ve highlighted half the book. Read it! You’ll be so glad you did.

[Amber Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should be mandatory reading for any preK-5 teacher. I became a teacher in the era of whole language instruction and really thought I was doing everything right and I was just stumped as to why my students weren't getting it. Knowing what I know now it's infuriating that we were trained to teach that way and competition completely abandon systematic phonics (that definitely taught me to read as a child). This is a straight forward professional text with easy to implement ideas and great suggestions if additional texts and programs to explore.

[Erin McDonnell-Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

For being published in 2019, I think there were a lot of limitations that weren't addressed in the text. For instance, an important discussion on the impact that culture has on their student body, in addition to the use of technology to support phonic awareness, and not just "phonics packets." Obviously, this was published pre-covid, so it will be interesting to hear what "at home" remedies could be included.

[Denise Shaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for great content and ease of reading. There are a lot of great ideas and great information. However, because of my many years of experience and my college prep, there wasn’t really anything new here for me. So, if you are like me, you could be disappointed. I still liked the read (which was for a book study) because it was easy and a good refresher.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I try to read at least one professional book each summer. This was by far the easiest one I have read. Most professional books are so dry. This one gave me lots of ideas for teaching reading and it reinforced information that I already knew. I loved the fact that they authors told it in a story format, using real examples from the failures and successes they had.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I had read this book when it first came out five years ago I think it would’ve been a five star PD book, but a lot of it was a repeat of things I’ve learned over the past few years. It’s a good introduction if that’s what you’re looking for, but if you’ve already starting diving into the science of reading, it’s a bit shallow.

[Kaitlin Jundt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for teachers anywhere in their career! This book really highlights the importance of phonics in reading instruction, especially in grades K-2. Fluency and comprehension can't happen without a strong basis in phonemic awareness.

[Corryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for work to build a phonemic awareness and phonics program to use this year. I knew most of the content already but still got a lot out of it. The activities will be really useful! The section on fluency solidified what I thought I knew.

[skip · Rating 3 out of 5]

this could do with like 3 chapters less. some of the things said we’re so repetitive. thought i will say the things that i did learn i will keep with me forever. i hope that when i become a teacher i can do this book some justice. also this was a required read for one of my classes

[Ro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Very easy to read and filled with great information/suggestions with excellent references and resources. It is a book that I will return to again and again. This book was a must read for me and I would suggest it to all teachers. Onto the next great PD book....

[Kristin Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a required read for class, but I really enjoyed it. I liked how the authors used stories from their own experience in the field to add to their credibility. I’ll definitely be holding onto this book to reference from time to time.

[Sheri Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you teach reading at all, this book will interest you. It is easy to read and practical for the classroom.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all elementary teachers!! Science of Reading

[Renee Johanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick and easy read. Great foundational principles related to phonics instruction and fluency. Research based strategies that make true differences in the classroom.

[Kristen Iworsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted more out of this book. It could have been three times longer. An important read for anyone in elementary education and parents of young ones.

[Helen Behr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly valuable and readable book on foundational skills.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in how the brain learns how to read- this book is for you! Based on the science of reading and has so many great examples and resources!!

[Brandon Ledford]

Great resource for anyone just starting to learn about research-based reading instruction.

[Cindy Council · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gave me insight and ideas for teaching my struggling readers!

[Heather Littman · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

[Macayla Statler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book!! 10/10. Read this for my “Teaching Elementary Reading” class this summer. Absolutely mind blowing, humorously written, and easy to read.

[Martha Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

All elementary teachers need to read this one!