Program Designed to Help Struggling Students with Literacy What: This activity took place in a Title I school in which over 90% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch and about 25% are identified as English learners. Because we receive federal and state money, we also have numerous government mandates to fulfill. Some […]
Category: Reading
Student Led Book Clubs
Book Club Allows Students to Take Ownership for Their Reading Book Club was originally created through collaboration with a third grade teacher(me) and fifth grade teacher who were seeking a way to empower students to have meaningful discussions on complex texts that were being read in class. When Book Club was first created, the whole […]
Intervention for All: Encouraging Growth of Language Arts Mastery
English Enrichment Program Allows Students the Opportunity to Experience in Depth Exploration of Class Standards At Northside Middle School, we knew a key component to achieving success in the mastery of language arts would be to encourage growth from all of our students. While many intervention programs are aimed at only the bottom or top […]
Results with Readers Workshop in First Grade
Reading Workshop Helps Develop Life-Long Passionate Readers Readers Workshop in our classroom is an extended period of time during our Language Arts Block devoted to reading and responding to literature. A mini lesson begins the workshop everyday. Children are then released to their “book nook” to read literary and informational text at their level and […]
Community Inclusion: Bringing a Novel to Life
Using Classic Literature to Inspire Student Success Through Inclusion So many great works of literature connect to universal themes experienced by our students. Students in high school with functional reading levels significantly below their peers need assistance in accessing the literature their peers study in general education high school English classes. Finding time to collaborate […]
Making the Reading and Writing Connection
After School Program Helps Students with Reading and Writing Wes-Del Elementary Comp Camp was begun several years ago by Shirley Thacker. Comp Camp is held in the spring, fall, and in the summer as an after school program. Mrs. Thacker is a certified presenter with the Indiana Writing Project and has presented her information in Washington […]
Article of the Week
News Articles Help Students Develop Reading Skills The Article of the Week is based on a concept developed by educator Kelly Gallagher. Gallagher recognized that the chief reason his students were struggling with reading comprehension was due to their lack of prior knowledge. His solution was “Article of the Week.” Students are assigned a current […]
Reciprocal Reading
Group Reading Encourages Continual Engagement Based on the four fundamental comprehension skills (summarizing, questioning, clarifying and predicting), this research-based approach challenges all readers to think within, about and beyond the text. Students work together collaboratively within a group and assume roles to complete the task at hand. Participation of all group members is essential for […]
Renaissance 4th-8th Grade Reading
Students Read an Impressive Variety of Literature and Share Their Findings The Upper Elementary Reading Program is one of the great strengths at Renaissance Academy. Students read an impressive variety of literature which they discuss in small book groups. The reading program is coordinated with the social studies curriculum, and also tied to the science […]
Reading and Writing Across Subjects
Writing Enhances Student Achievement This is an assignment that would benefit most a high school level 3 French class. However, it can be altered to fit other levels and other languages. At the end of the first semester, for the final of their second year in French, students are to write a children’s story. Students […]
Literacy Framework: Focus on LLI
Workshop Models Help Benefit LLI The Project School Literacy Model is based on the systematic coordination of curriculum and instruction best practices that we have researched and selected to work together in order to ensure the success of all readers and writers. At The Project School, the majority of the teaching of reading and writing occurs […]
Success
Remediation, Maintenance, and Enrichment Period Helps Students Achieve Success We offer a Success period at the beginning of each day. Our periods are tiered into three levels for both math and ELA. We have remediation, maintenance, and enrichment. Our enrichment period is project and community-based learning with the current math and ELA standards wrapped into […]
A Response to Intervention (RTI) Model for Elementary Grades
Increasing Individualized Reading and Mathematics Instruction Helps Failing Students Burris Laboratory School developed a Response to Intervention (RTI) model during the 2010-2011 school year as a collaborative project among elementary teachers facilitated by Dr. Susan Albrecht and Mrs. Dawn Miller. RTI is a process of providing increasing individualized, intensive instruction in reading and mathematics to students […]
Read Like A Historian
Social Studies Teaching Strategy Helps Children Learn Read Like a Historian is an instructional strategy that emerged from Anderson High School’s implementation of the RAISE (Reading Apprenticeship) efforts to improve academic literacy in secondary content areas. Students are taught reading strategies specifically necessary to understanding primary documents and other forms of texts found in the […]
Lost Generation Literature: Parisian Salon Simulation
Simulation of Literary Characters Sparks Higher Level Thinking This literary salon simulation is the final exam and major scholarly project of the Lost Generation Literature class I teach at the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities. Students who take this course not only read the great literature written by such twentieth-century literary giants as […]
iLit Reading Instruction
Student Personalized Learning Support Helps Students Who Struggle With Reading Pearson’s iLit core reading program for struggling readers is designed to meet the national crisis of students who simply cannot read at the appropriate grade level and who, by the time they reach high school, are dropping out, checking out, or acting out. iLit engages […]
Fluency Development Lesson
Developing a New Way to Build Reading Fluency and Comprehension In The Fluent Reader, Timothy Rasinski describes “slow, disjointed, and labored” reading from struggling readers as an underlying factor in decreased comprehension. As an answer to this issue, he created a reading intervention, the Fluency Development Lesson, to help build reading fluency (and consequently comprehension). […]
Dramatizing Within and Outside the Context of Text to Engage and Motivate Learners
Drama Performances Increase Student Engagement Students utilize a variety of drama performances in order to enhance their thinking and understanding of the concepts from the text. Issues this Best Practice Addresses: This Best Practice was developed to increase student engagement and to encourage all students to be an active part of developing understanding while reading. […]
Analyzing Poetry
Students Find Elements in Poems I teach students to analyze poems by introducing them to a list of elements that appear in many poems and helping them learn to find these elements themselves and think about how they work together. Rather than asking them what the poem means, or inviting them to respond only in […]