Instructional Strategies for Students with Special Needs by Dan Bachor; Carol CrealockReview by: Che Kan LeongCanadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Autumn,1989), pp. 504-505Published by: Canadian Society for the Study of EducationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1495433 .

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504 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS

Instructional Strategies for Students with Special Needs

by Dan Bachor & Carol Crealock

Scarborough, ON: Prentice-Hall, 1986. xii + 543 pages. REVIEWED BY CHE KAN LEONG, UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN

William Cruickshank, an elder statesman in special education, recently remarked on the plethora of textbooks on exceptional individuals, writing that these books are often repetitive. It is difficult to write another book on the topic and just as difficult to criticize one.

However, Bachor and Crealock's the volume offers a refreshing approach to exceptionality. These authors adopt a decision-making model, hold to a

non-categorical view of exceptionality, and argue for integration of students with disabilities. Six of their twelve chapters discuss instruction in the interrelated areas of reading, elementary mathematics, and composing in a lucid and systematic way. The underlying concepts are sound, and the

explication of the instructional procedure clear while allowing modification

by more resourceful teachers. Readers end with a clear idea how to base their instruction or habilitation of students with special needs on assessment as described in earlier chapters. The chapters on assessment provide a functional account of working with students and their parents, with a sample parent report on page 41 to suggest how diagnosticians should write for

parents. The chapters on writing and composing deal helpfully with matters not

usually treated or treated well in textbooks on exceptionality. Two specially commissioned chapters, one by Rey Carr and Vance Peavy and the other by Merrill Sitko, discuss the consultative role of resource teachers and com-

puter-aided (or is it computer-managed?) instruction. The discussion of the Bank Street College work on writing is especially useful.

Topics are presented in a way undergraduates will find easily understand- able. The format, the judicious use of section and paragraph headings, and the diagrams all add to the general clarity.

The book is, nonetheless, imperfect. It includes only 8 lines on Jay Samuel's adjunct method of repeated readings (p. 173) whereas the so- called "neurological imprint"' (explained by Armitage, reference incom-

plete) takes up one full page. Samuel's method is based on LaBerge and Samuel's automaticity theory and has been replicated a number of times. The question of appropriate proportion arises here, and receives no

adequate answer. Further, the book may not be quite as "critical" as it ought. The authors

are avowedly committed to integration. A critical appraisal of Margaret Wang's, Maynard Reynolds's, and others' views would enhance the aca-

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BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 505

demic value of the book and help Canadian educators to reflect on some

major issues in special education. But these quibbles should not detract from a book that offers much to assist in the instruction of students with

special needs. All in all, the Bachor and Crealock volume is a welcome addition to works

on exceptionality.

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