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The Literacy Cookbook: A Practical Guide to Effective Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening Instruction
Proven methods for teaching reading comprehension to all students
The Literacy Cookbook is filled with classroom-tested techniques for teaching reading comprehension to even the most hard-to-reach students. The book offers a review of approaches that are targeted for teaching reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. The book also includes information on how to connect reading, writing, and test prep. The website includes an ELA Common Core Tracking Sheet, a handy resource when writing or evaluating curriculum.
The Literacy Cookbook is filled with classroom-tested techniques for teaching reading comprehension to even the most hard-to-reach students. The book offers a review of approaches that are targeted for teaching reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. The book also includes information on how to connect reading, writing, and test prep. The website includes an ELA Common Core Tracking Sheet, a handy resource when writing or evaluating curriculum.
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 27, 2012
2 people are currently reading
369 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Tantillo
6 books21 followersA lifelong educator, Sarah Tantillo is the creator of THE LITERACY COOKBOOK (www.literacycookbook.com) and author of THE LITERACY COOKBOOK: A Practical Guide to Effective Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening Instruction (2012), LITERACY AND THE COMMON CORE: Recipes for Action (2014), and USING GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE WRITING: Recipes for Action (2018). Sarah consults in NJ and nationally with schools (esp. urban) seeking to improve student achievement. Her latest book is HIT THE DRUM: An Insider's Account of How the Charter School Idea Became a National Movement (2019).
Sarah taught high school English and Humanities in both suburban and urban New Jersey public schools for 14 years, including seven years at the high-performing North Star Academy Charter School of Newark, where she chaired the Humanities Dept.. She also founded and directed the New Jersey Charter School Resource Center from 1996-1999 and the New Jersey Charter Public Schools Association from 1999-2003. She consulted F/T from 2007-2019, then for 3 years worked as Managing Director of Humanities at Great Oaks Legacy Charter Schools, then in 2022 pivoted back into F/T consulting.
Sarah coaches K-12 schools on literacy instruction, curriculum development, leadership, culture-building, mental wellness, and strategic planning. She has studied at Princeton (B.A. ’87), Harvard (M.Ed. ’91), Johns Hopkins (M.A. ’95), and Rutgers (Ed.D. ’01). Her dissertation was on culture formation in charter schools. She currently writes two blogs: "The Literacy Cookbook" and "Only Good Books." In 2021, Sarah became a certified energy healer and intuitive coach through the nonprofit Shine Your Light.
Since 2013, Sarah has been an avid Trustee of Princeton-Blairstown Center, a nonprofit that serves young people, primarily from historically marginalized communities, by nurturing their social-emotional skills through experiential, environmental, and adventure-based programming.
Sarah taught high school English and Humanities in both suburban and urban New Jersey public schools for 14 years, including seven years at the high-performing North Star Academy Charter School of Newark, where she chaired the Humanities Dept.. She also founded and directed the New Jersey Charter School Resource Center from 1996-1999 and the New Jersey Charter Public Schools Association from 1999-2003. She consulted F/T from 2007-2019, then for 3 years worked as Managing Director of Humanities at Great Oaks Legacy Charter Schools, then in 2022 pivoted back into F/T consulting.
Sarah coaches K-12 schools on literacy instruction, curriculum development, leadership, culture-building, mental wellness, and strategic planning. She has studied at Princeton (B.A. ’87), Harvard (M.Ed. ’91), Johns Hopkins (M.A. ’95), and Rutgers (Ed.D. ’01). Her dissertation was on culture formation in charter schools. She currently writes two blogs: "The Literacy Cookbook" and "Only Good Books." In 2021, Sarah became a certified energy healer and intuitive coach through the nonprofit Shine Your Light.
Since 2013, Sarah has been an avid Trustee of Princeton-Blairstown Center, a nonprofit that serves young people, primarily from historically marginalized communities, by nurturing their social-emotional skills through experiential, environmental, and adventure-based programming.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 8, 2013
Sarah Tantillo's The Literacy Cookbook is a survey-style book that covers the gamut (or kitchen, if you're into extended metaphors) of teaching literacy: basic comprehension skills, reading, writing (including chapters on persuasive and research writing), speaking & listening, and test-taking skills. She shares the wisdom of many high-profile literacy experts like Chris Tovani, Kelly Gallagher, and Jeff Zwiers.
Thus, whether you are a rookie teacher or a seasoned one, you'll glean something useful from your reading. From there, if you want greater depth, you can move on to read these teacher/authors' books yourself. Tantillo's angle is to give a flavor of their expertise and then add her own touches, often in the form of graphic organizers and strategies.
The strength of the book is its practicality. Teaching theory is like salt. A little bit flavors the stew, but too much makes your eyes bug out. It also makes you put down the spoon and push the bowl away. Tantillo seems aware of this. She may touch upon "big ideas" but she's all about the "street smarts" of execution in the classroom. Inveterate "borrowers," teachers will find a lot of useful stuff, then, for immediate implementation in their curriculums.
Here's the annoyance -- the bad ingredient. Not all sections are equally strong or informative. Often Tantillo gives you a "teaser" of sorts, mentioning a strategy and then saying that readers can find worksheets to implement it on a website. This gives the book a disjointed feel, with some sections more thorough and inclusive, others more sketchy and incomplete. If you go to the website, you see that "hundreds of files" are available on a 30-day trial basis and that the site will be updated with new stuff for a subscription costing 50 bucks a year (group discounts available). The site also provides leads to Tantillo's workshops and consulting services.
And even if you want the free trial, you must first pony up your name, e-mail address, and name and address of your school. I realize that many teachers will think nothing of this and are used to corporations (Jossey-Bass, here) collecting personal data, but feel it should be mentioned because, in some cases, it does impact what you see and don't see in the book you purchased. Otherwise I'd be fine with the website. Capitalism is a cornerstone of our country, after all.
Bottom line: Great advice -- none of which I can argue with -- but uneven inclusion of materials. Despite my personal dislike of the marketing angle, I still recommend the book overall. Most teachers will find some useful stuff in its pages and, like me, can just ignore the website.
Note: Sarah Tantillo has kindly added a comment below in defense of the website. I learned after reading the book that ST's website came first and is the basis of the book.
Thus, whether you are a rookie teacher or a seasoned one, you'll glean something useful from your reading. From there, if you want greater depth, you can move on to read these teacher/authors' books yourself. Tantillo's angle is to give a flavor of their expertise and then add her own touches, often in the form of graphic organizers and strategies.
The strength of the book is its practicality. Teaching theory is like salt. A little bit flavors the stew, but too much makes your eyes bug out. It also makes you put down the spoon and push the bowl away. Tantillo seems aware of this. She may touch upon "big ideas" but she's all about the "street smarts" of execution in the classroom. Inveterate "borrowers," teachers will find a lot of useful stuff, then, for immediate implementation in their curriculums.
Here's the annoyance -- the bad ingredient. Not all sections are equally strong or informative. Often Tantillo gives you a "teaser" of sorts, mentioning a strategy and then saying that readers can find worksheets to implement it on a website. This gives the book a disjointed feel, with some sections more thorough and inclusive, others more sketchy and incomplete. If you go to the website, you see that "hundreds of files" are available on a 30-day trial basis and that the site will be updated with new stuff for a subscription costing 50 bucks a year (group discounts available). The site also provides leads to Tantillo's workshops and consulting services.
And even if you want the free trial, you must first pony up your name, e-mail address, and name and address of your school. I realize that many teachers will think nothing of this and are used to corporations (Jossey-Bass, here) collecting personal data, but feel it should be mentioned because, in some cases, it does impact what you see and don't see in the book you purchased. Otherwise I'd be fine with the website. Capitalism is a cornerstone of our country, after all.
Bottom line: Great advice -- none of which I can argue with -- but uneven inclusion of materials. Despite my personal dislike of the marketing angle, I still recommend the book overall. Most teachers will find some useful stuff in its pages and, like me, can just ignore the website.
Note: Sarah Tantillo has kindly added a comment below in defense of the website. I learned after reading the book that ST's website came first and is the basis of the book.
July 28, 2021
Variety of ideas for the ELA classroom. This may be a perfectly great book but it isn't what I'm looking for. I am in search of a more cohesive practice, not more activities.
Want to read
September 4, 2016Won as part of the Goodreads first reads program. Can't wait to read it!
August 31, 2013
Good refresher! Has some good websites to look at and the appendices have some interesting graphic organizers.
September 7, 2015
Very useful resource
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews