Presented By: Debbie Baker, Three Rivers Middle School Soraya Coccimiglio, MiBLSI Region 9 TAP

Ron Martella, Ph.D. Nancy Marchand- Martella, Ph.D.

Decide on a partner (someone sitting next to you or someone you don’t know). Decide on who will be “Partner 1” and who will be “Partner 2”. “Partner 1” will be the “Test Taker” “Partner 2” will be the “Administrator”

Students struggle with the complex demands of reading middle and high school text. NAEP (2005) assessed twelfth graders: – Only 35% read at or above proficient reading level. 43% White, 16% African American, 20% Hispanic, 18% American Indian/Alaskan Native. Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress (2005, 2007)

68% of ninth graders will graduate from high school; only 18% graduate from college. Roughly 50% of African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic students graduate from high school while about 80% White students graduate. Students in bottom quartile of achievement 20 times more likely to drop out of school. Over 40% of adults in two lowest levels of literacy live in poverty. Source: Rand Corporation (2005); Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (2005)

Poor academic skills are consistently linked with – Higher dropout rates – Unemployment – Entrance into the juvenile justice/prison system 1/3 of all juvenile offenders read below the 4 th grade reading level 82% of prison inmates are high school dropouts Source: National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE, 2005)

In CA, AZ and IN if the child isn’t reading on 4 th grade level when tested, they will plan to budget building another jail cell. Paul Schwartz, Principal in Residence, U.S. Dept. Of Education

More than 50% of students at 4-year schools and more than 75% of students at 2-year schools lack skills to perform complex literacy tasks. Source: American Institutes for Research (2006)

“The data suggest that the leaks in our education pipeline are at least partially due to the fact that large numbers of young people reach high school without being able to read with sufficient fluency and comprehension to do serious academic work” (p. 2). Source: Rand Corporation (2005)

Largest group experience some problems with fluency and comprehension while reading more advanced text. Second group have difficulties with fluency and comprehension no matter what they read. Smallest group (no more than 10%) cannot decode or read the words on a page. Source: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (2005)

Secondary Literacy: Requires students to construct the meaning of content-area text and more complex literature encountered in school. Requires students to tackle the kinds of reading required on state-level accountability measures. Requires students to make inferences and draw conclusions. Source: Torgesen et al. (2007)

The Five Big Ideas in Adolescent Literacy: Word Study Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension Motivation

Designed for Students in Grades 6-12 Determined by Placement Test

Pages in both guides

Word Study: – Instructional practices that focus on reading at the word level. Explicit instruction on decoding (sounds/sound combinations, blending). Explicit instruction on decoding multisyllabic words.

Fluency: – Instructional practices that focus on reading texts quickly, accurately, and with expression (prosody). Repeated oral reading Careful monitoring and feedback Comprehension activities tied to fluency passages Goal setting and progress monitoring

Vocabulary: – Instructional practices that focus on specific words and word learning strategies. Exposure to a breadth of vocabulary words Explicit instruction on word-learning strategies Repeated opportunities to use vocabulary in different contexts Makes use of the three tiers of words: 1.Words students are likely to know (e.g. tall) 2.Words appearing frequently in text (e.g. benevolent) 3.Words that are content specific (e.g. herbivore)

Comprehension: – Instructional practices that focus on text comprehension strategies Making connections and activating prior knowledge Graphic organizers Comprehension monitoring strategies with think alouds Mnemonic strategiesd Question generation Notetaking Summarization (paragraph shrinking)

Motivation: – Instructional practices that focus on student engagement and motivation Student friendly topics (topics students are interested in) Increased social interactions (paired practice?) Varied hands-on activities Teacher-directed instruction fades to student independence