Total Literacy Techniques: Tools to Help Students Analyze Literature and Informational Texts

This book provides 3rd through 12th grade teachers with more than 50 teacher-tested tools and techniques for helping their students read independently and critically. Authors Pérsida and William Himmele and National Board Certified teacher Keely Potter present literacy as an interconnected process that involves emotions, cognition, and multiple opportunities for developing higher-order thinking. With this in mind, they present tools for helping students develop academic language, become avid and analytical readers, engage with literature and informational texts, discuss texts, and write about texts in clear and cogent ways. Each chapter includes reflections from real teachers and students who share their own literary practices and journeys, bringing the practices to life.


With a focus on engaging students as thinkers, readers and writers, Total Literacy Techniques provides practical and effective ways for teachers to help students develop the critical reading habits that open up new ways of understanding and contributing to their worlds.

Pérsida Himmele and William Himmele are the authors of the best-selling ASCD book Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an Active Learner.