Block, Cathy Collins 1948-

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BLOCK, Cathy Collins 1948-

PERSONAL: Born December 11, 1948, in Madison, WI; daughter of Charles Douglas and Jo Ann (Jiru) Zinke; married Stanley Byron Block, June, 1991; children: Michael Donegan. Education: Lamar University, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1970; North Texas State University, M.S. (with honors), 1974; University of Wisconsin, Madison, Ph.D., 1976.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—School of Education, P.O. Box 297900, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Elementary classroom teacher in OK and TX, 1970-74; Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, assistant professor, 1976-77; Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, instructor, 1977-78, assistant professor, 1978-82, associate professor, 1982-90, professor of education, 1990—; University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, national faculty member, 1997—; educational advisor and consultant.

MEMBER: International Reading Association, American Educational Research Association, American Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Council of Teachers of English, Kappa Delta Phi, Phi Delta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Named a Notable Woman of Texas, 1983; Paul A. Witty Award, National Reading Conference, 1997.

WRITINGS:

Time Management for Teachers: Techniques and Skills That Give You More Time to Teach, Parker Publishing Co. (West Nyack, NY), 1987.

(Editor, with John N. Mangieri) Teaching Thinking: An Agenda for the Twenty-first Century, L. Erlbaum Associates (Hillsdale, NJ), 1992.

126 Strategies to Build Language-Arts Abilities: A Month-by-Month Resource, illustrated by Ruben Olmos, Allyn and Bacon (Boston, MA), 1992.

Teaching the Language Arts: Expanding Thinking through Student-centered Instruction, Allyn and Bacon (Boston, MA), 1993, third edition, 2001.

(Editor, with John N. Mangieri) Creating Powerful Thinking in Teachers and Students: Diverse Perspectives, Harcourt Brace College (Fort Worth, TX), 1994.

(With Jo Ann Zinke) Creating a Culturally Enriched Curriculum for Grades K-6, Allyn and Bacon (Boston, MA), 1995.

(With John N. Mangieri) Reason to Read: Thinking Strategies for Life through Literature, two volumes, Innovative Learning Publications (Menlo Park, CA), 1995.

(With John N. Mangieri) Power Thinking for Success, Brookline Books (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

Literacy Diffıculties: Diagnosis and Instruction, Harcourt Brace College (Fort Worth, TX), 1997, reprinted as Literacy Diffıculties: Diagnosis and Instruction for Reading Specialists and Classroom Teachers, Allyn and Bacon (Boston, MA), 2003.

(With others) Learning to Read: Lessons from Exemplary First-Grade Classrooms, Guilford Press (New York, NY), 2001.

(Editor, with Michael Pressley) Comprehension Instruction: Research-based Best Practices, Guilford Press (New York, NY), 2001.

(Editor, with Linda Gambrell and Michael Pressley) Improving Comprehension Instruction: Rethinking Research, Theory, and Classroom Practice, Jossey-Bass (San Francisco, CA), 2002.

(With John N. Mangieri) Exemplary Literacy Teachers: Promoting Success for All Children in Grades K-5, Guilford Press (New York, NY), 2003.

(With John N. Mangieri) Yale Assessment of Thinking: A Self-Assessment of Your Skill in the Areas of Reasoning, Insight, and Self-Knowledge, Jossey-Bass (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

(With Lori L. Rodgers and Rebecca B. Johnson) Comprehension Process Instruction: Creating Reading Success in Grades K-3 ("Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy" series), Guilford Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Teaching Comprehension: The Comprehension Process Approach, Pearson (Boston, MA), 2004.

(With John N. Mangieri) Power Thinking: How the Way You Think Can Change the Way You Lead, Jossey-Bass (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

Author and editor of and contributor to tests, test guides, booklets, educational Web sites, and CDs; contributor of chapters to books and to periodicals, including Elementary School Journal, School Administrator, Reading Today, Reading Teacher, Journal of Reading, and Reading Horizons. Serves on the editorial boards of publications including Journal of Educational Psychology and Reading Teacher.

SIDELIGHTS: Cathy Collins Block is an educator and the author or editor of a number of books that address education, particularly of elementary school children. She is a coauthor of Learning to Read: Lessons from Exemplary First-Grade Classrooms, which focuses on successful literacy teaching. The book explains teacher strategies that have resulted in outstanding performances by students, presented both through summaries and in chapters focusing on individual case studies. Donald J. Richgels wrote in Reading Teacher that Block's "general findings are easy to summarize. The essence of the book's message about exemplary first-grade literacy instruction, however, can be appreciated only from reading the case studies. Reading them is easy and enjoyable; they unequivocally justify this book-length presentation. These cases are rich with detail."

Block is also the editor, with Michael Pressley, of Comprehension Instruction: Research-based Best Practices, a volume that includes four sections, titled "Theoretical Foundations: New Directions for the Future," "Branching out and Expanding Our Horizons in the Twenty-first Century," "Comprehension Instruction in Preschool, Primary, and Intermediate Grades," and "Intensification of Comprehension Instruction throughout Middle School, High School, and College." "It is difficult in an ordinary review to provide even a snapshot of all this extraordinary book has to offer," wrote a contributor to Education Oasis online. "Here you will find research, insights, inspiration, questions, answers, critical examinations, suggestions, advice, and more."

Block serves as co-editor, with Linda Gambrell and Pressley, of Improving Comprehension Instruction: Rethinking Research, Theory, and Classroom Practice, a volume that addresses educational technology, lesson structure, and overcoming reading problems. A Reading Today reviewer noted that "issues of linguistic and cultural diversity, high-stakes testing, and critical literacy are addressed" in this volume.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Childhood Education, Volume 80, number 5, 2004, Angela S. Raines, review of Improving Comprehension Instruction: Rethinking Research, Theory, and Classroom Practice, p. 276.

Reading Teacher, May, 2003, Donald J. Richgels, review of Learning to Read: Lessons from Exemplary First-Grade Classrooms, p. 796.

Reading Today, August-September, 2002, review of Improving Comprehension Instruction, p. 35; June-July, 2003, Pat D. Cordero, "RAP conference touches magic," p. 29.