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The aim of this chapter is to argue that charisma is a collective representation, and that charismatic authority is a social status that derives more from the “recognition” of the followers than from the “magnetism” of the leaders. I contend further that a close reading of Max Weber shows that he, too, saw charisma in this light.

I develop my argument by a close reading of many of the most relevant texts on the subject. This includes not only the renowned texts on this subject by Max Weber, but also many books and articles that interpret or criticize Weber’s views.

I pay exceptionally close attention to key arguments and texts, several of which have been overlooked in the past.

Writers for whom charisma is personal magnetism tend to assume that charismatic rule is natural and that the full realization of democratic norms is unlikely. Authority, in this view, emanates from rulers unbound by popular constraint. I argue that, in fact, authority draws both its mandate and its energy from the public, and that rulers depend on the loyalty of their subjects, which is never assured. So charismatic claimants are dependent on popular choice, not vice versa.

I advocate a “culturalist” interpretation of Weber, which runs counter to the dominant “personalist” account. Conventional interpreters, under the sway of theology or mass psychology, misread Weber as a romantic, for whom charisma is primal and undemocratic rule is destiny. This essay offers a counter-reading.

Purpose – The chapter provides the reader with an overview of the major components of informal reading inventories (IRIs) and how they can be administered to answer specific questions about students’ reading behaviors. The focus then shifts to how IRIs can be used to help teachers target instruction to better meet students’ instructional needs.

Methodology/approach – The authors describe how educators can use the results of IRIs to analyze a student's strengths and areas of need, align those findings with research about six types (clusters) of readers (Valencia & Buly, 2004), and select one or more of the strategies recommended in the chapter to provide instruction related to that student's specific areas of need.

Practical implications – In addition to the numerous instructional recommendations provided for the six clusters of readers, the chapter includes a detailed scenario of how one teacher used the results of an IRI to plan instruction for a struggling reader, a process that could be replicated by educators who read the chapter.

Social implications – The chapter suggests how small groups of educators could work together to determine which of their students to assess with an IRI and, after assessing, to discuss how they will use the results to target instruction for those students.

To examine the utility of multiple reading speeds during rereadings toward enhancing comprehension and application of subsequently gained knowledge.

Representations of slow, mindful reading as well as analyses of eye training and speed reading techniques are described to serve as the theoretical foundation for the meta-strategy – read fast, read slow (RF/RS).

This meta-strategy encompasses aspects of rereading, eye training exercises, and speed reading; it is derived from a cognitive concept that a blueprint can be formed from reading at an increased speed from one’s normal speed. Further, the gaps along with that information which was not fully understood from the initial reading can be secured by following the initial fast read with a slower than normal reading of the text. The idea is to refine that which is important versus unimportant (main idea vs. details), and enhance the surface level of understanding into one that is critical and analytical after having been confronted against existing schematic notions.

Concepts of text structure, word reading automaticity, and content interest are natural by-products of using the RF/RS strategy. Together, these benefits allow for holistic growth and moreover, provide successful reading experiences. Successful reading prompts additional reading, as it has been widely established that better readers read more often and more widely.

Purpose – This chapter profiles a summer reading clinic that utilizes graduate students (clinicians) to provide diagnostic literacy intervention for students in grades one through six who struggle with reading and writing. The chapter asserts that struggling readers can become successful when instruction is designed around research-based principles of teaching and learning. A description is provided of the instructional routine employed at the clinic that focuses on fluency and has been shown to assist students in making significant improvements in their literacy progress.

Methodology/approach – The authors describe how teachers and intervention specialists work together to provide an effective intervention to the students that emphasizes a specific guided oral fluency routine known as the Fluency Development Lesson (FDL). Each step in the FDL is explained. Prior to instruction, clinicians administered an informal reading inventory to gain baseline data about the students in the areas of word recognition, fluency, and comprehension and to subsequently inform instruction. During the fifth and final week of the program, posttests were administered. T-Tests indicated that students made significant progress (p <.001) from pretest to posttest in all areas measured.

Limitations – The authors acknowledge that the study is small in scale, the intervention period was limited, and the results may have been influenced by outside factors beyond their control.

Research implications – The study's primary purpose was to improve the reading outcomes of the students involved. The reading clinic setting is ideal for further FDL research including its impact on older students and the incorporation of digital texts on student performance. Additionally, readers of the chapter are encouraged to apply the methods and processes to their own classrooms.

Originality/value – This chapter shows how a summer reading clinic strives to apply research-based, common sense factors that matter most in teaching struggling students to read in intervention and classroom settings. Some of the factors such as the importance of instructional routine, time-on-task, text selection, targeted teaching, and instructional talk are considered key to the successful implementation of the FDL and the clinical experience.

A substantial number of students read significantly below grade level, and students with disabilities perform far below their non-disabled peers. Reading achievement data indicate that many students with and at-risk for reading disabilities require more intensive reading interventions. This chapter utilizes the theoretical model of the Simple View of Reading to describe the benefit of early reading instruction, targeting both word reading and word meaning. In addition, evidence is presented supporting the use of word meaning instruction to improve accurate and efficient word reading for students who have failed to respond to explicit decoding instruction.

To describe the connections between reading and writing and to discuss new ways of understanding the nuisances associated with their development beginning with consideration to language appreciation.

Theoretical advances related to the complexity of reading, thinking, and writing are discussed alongside an ongoing description of how wide reading, interventions, language study, and risk taking are foundational to language creation.

The linkages between reading and writing are inseparable. Reading and writing must be developed in unison. The best writers are avid readers and vice versa. Generally speaking, students will have preferences regarding which they enjoy partaking in more but this just gives the motivation to utilize an appreciate approach to grow, that is utilizing existing strengths of the student in either reading or writing toward improving the other.

A host of instructional practices can extend from these new theoretical understandings of language creation including free verse journals, usage of non-examples to jolt previous understandings, language play, feedback, diverse literature, and finalization processes related to writing development.

The present study analyzed the performance of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when carrying out reading comprehension and written composition tasks. Thirty children with ADHD and 30 normally developing children without ADHD, matched on age, IQ, word retrieval and spelling, were selected. All of the subjects were evaluated using four types of reading comprehension tasks (literal comprehension, inferential comprehension, a fragment ordering task, and recall of story content), and a composition writing task. The results indicate that the two groups (ADHD and without ADHD) do not differ on literal comprehension or inferential comprehension. Nevertheless, our results show that children with ADHD perform significantly worse than the group without ADHD on the fragment ordering task, the recall of story content, and on different indicators of written language production, which depend primarily on self-regulation abilities necessary for organizing information and maintaining the level of effort. The findings suggest that the deficit observed in reading comprehension and written composition skills in children with ADHD may reflect deficiencies in executive processes. The methodology used in this research on the reading comprehension and written composition problems of children with ADHD presents a series of strengths and weaknesses. The reflections on the limitations identified in the study serve as a basis for establishing directions for future research.

In this chapter, we focus on specially designed instruction (SDI) as a core value for the field of specific learning disabilities (SLD). SDI is at the heart of special education, and the field of LD has been built on the core value that effective instruction improves student outcomes. We describe a two-step test and an extended example of what is and is not SDI for Matt, a student with an SLD. Finally, we discuss some of the confusion surrounding SDI and the need for the field to return to its core value of individualized, intentional, targeted, evidence- or high leverage practice–based, and systematic instruction for students with SLD.

Chapter 5 changes focus from the external stimulus to the internal sensemaking by integrating and comparing new learning with the prior learning of the individual, which is the process of sensory cognition. These processes are identified and compiled into a model of the processes the brain uses to construct a cognition from the information, including both individual and collective learning. This results in the internalization of a new individual cognition constructed from the integration of the new information with prior information.

Purpose – To provide classroom teachers with an understanding of how children’s errors in reading provide evidence of sources of information that children draw upon to solve problems and monitor their reading.Design/methodology/approach – This chapter provides a theoretical discussion of sources of information found in text and their use during reading followed by examples from two case study children.Findings – One of the case study children primarily relies on meaning and syntax and ignores visual/print information. The other case study child relies primarily on visual/print information and ignores meaning and syntax.Research limitations/implications – Only two case study children are examined and only at the very beginning stages of reading in first grade.Practical implications – The decisions made by the teacher used in the examples provide valuable suggestions for classroom teachers who have a range of different readers in their classrooms.Originality/value of chapter – Teachers need information about how to shape children’s reading behaviors as they read text, solve problems during reading, and monitor their attempts.