Adolescent Literacy Solutions
Without a firm foundation in the basic skills of reading, many middle and high schools will struggle to meet the rigorous expectations of their state standards. This 2-part series equips educators with the knowledge of the science of reading and the instructional skills necessary to accelerate underperforming students.
Combine the Decoding and Fluency workshops for an intensive intervention-focused solution for your teachers of struggling adolescent readers. Combine the Adolescent Vocabulary and Comprehension workshops to address the needs of all learners.
Part 1: Intensive Intervention Series — Decoding Instruction for Adolescents and Fluency Development
Many middle and high school teachers have not had the preparation needed to teach struggling adolescent readers. These two days will provide a starting point and foundational information on the science of reading for teachers to begin to make informed instructional decisions and address the needs of adolescent struggling readers, and to gain a basic understanding of decoding instruction and fluency development.
The topics covered in this session include basic linguistics, basic phonics, high-frequency words, and multisyllabic word instruction.
Participant Outcomes:
- Understand the concept of phonemic awareness as the underpinning for learning to decode.
- Learn specific ways to teach phonics and why phonics instruction is vital for struggling readers.
- Learn strategies for teaching high-frequency words.
- Practice ways to teach students to recognize multisyllabic words.
This session focuses on instructional methods for teaching students to become fluent readers and spotlights the relationship between fluency and comprehension. Highlights include specific techniques to increase time on text and promote rereading: Readers Theatre, active learning and repeat reading.
Participant Outcomes:
- Understand the concept of fluency and its importance to reading achievement.
- Learn methods and tools for fluency assessment.
- Learn high-leverage strategies for building reading fluency.
Levels: 6–12
Audience: 6–12 intervention teachers, English learner teachers, special education teachers, reading teachers, and coaches
Format: Two full days
Materials: Participant Resource Guide, Teaching Reading Sourcebook, updated 2nd Edition, Assessing Reading: Multiple Measures, 2nd Edition, and Blending Routines DVD
Part 2: Academic Literacy Series for All — Vocabulary, Comprehension Strategies and Text Structures
These two days focus on enhancing vocabulary knowledge for all middle and high school students and on improving content understanding through comprehension strategies that work for both literary and informational text. These two sessions are appropriate for intervention, English learner and all content educators, especially when implementing instruction aligned to high-leverage practices and rigorous standards.
Participants learn and practice evidence-based methods to directly teach important content vocabulary, teach students to figure out unknown words using contextual analysis and morphemic analysis skills, and engage in fun and stimulating activities that foster “word consciousness.” Participants will receive more than 30 sample lesson models with easy application to classroom text in any academic content area.
Participant Outcomes:
- Know the current research on vocabulary development.
- Know high-leverage techniques for teaching specific words.
- Know high-leverage strategies for teaching students to figure out unfamiliar words while reading.
- Have a repertoire of active strategies for promoting “word consciousness.”
- Be prepared to apply the techniques and strategies to classroom text.
- Leave with lessons developed to connect to existing materials.
Participants learn about current, validated research in comprehension instruction and receive an overview of the factors known to positively impact comprehension. Participants receive in-depth instruction in selected instructional techniques that have broad application in both narrative and informational text at all grade levels, including content classes. These techniques encompass the following:
- Teacher interaction with students with an emphasis on question techniques
- Instruction in recognizing informational text structures
- Specific strategies for helping students understand Internet sources
- Identifying the main idea, summarizing and making inferences
Participant Outcomes:
- Understand seminal research on text comprehension.
- Apply a set of strategies to your own text.
- Understand different text structures and their signal words.
- Understand high-leverage ways to improve instruction in content-area texts.
Levels: 6–12
Audience: 6–12 administrators, academic content-area teachers, English learner teachers, special education teachers, reading specialists, and coaches
Format: Two days (Each day may be taken separately, but the two-day series is ideal.)
Materials: Comprehension Instruction booklet, Participant Resource Guide from Day 5 of the Adolescent Reading Academy, and Vocabulary Handbook and Participant Resource Guide from the Adolescent Vocabulary Workshop
If all four days are taken, the Teaching Reading Sourcebook replaces the Vocabulary Handbook and the Comprehension section.