Personalization of learning and instruction is the most critical issue facing contemporary education--not state testing or vouchers or even aging schools. Personalization is an attempt on the part of a school to take into account individual student characteristics and needs and flexible instructional practices in organizing the learning environment. This book presents the conceptual rationale for personalizing instruction, provides twenty working strategies to assist schools in redesigning themselves for personalization, and cites specific examples of personalization in the subject disciplines and in selected schools. This second edition expands the discussion on personalization, updates the sections on instructional strategies, assessment, and grade reporting, and cites new developments in the disciplines and in the schools. The book contains the following chapters: (1) Theory Behind the Strategies; (2) Research Behind the Strategies; (3) Teaching Very Young Children to Read: Getting In-Touch Readiness Activities; (4) Teaching Young Children to Read by Singing; (5) Teaching Young Children to Read by Combining Music, Lyrics, and Text; (6) Teaching Young Children to Read with Tape Recorded Books; (7) Teaching Young Children to Read with Body Parts; (8) Teaching Young Children to Read by Baking; (9) Teaching Young Children to Read by Preparing Them for a Trip or Vacation; (10) Teaching Young Children with Everyday Print; (11) Teaching Elementary Children to Read with Reading is the Answer; (12) Teaching Elementary Children to Read with Language Games; (13) Teaching Elementary Children to Read Through Rebus and Rhyme; (14) Teaching Elementary Children to Read Poetry; (15) Teaching Elementary Children to Read by Scrap Booking; (16) Teaching Middle School Children with Cultural Texts; (17) Teaching Middle School Children to Read with Programmed Learning Sequences; (18) Teaching Middle School Children to Read with Small-Group Strategies; and (19) Teaching Middle School Children to Read with Contract Activity Packages.