Reading

Review the literacy core instructional practices. Which of the core instructional practices might further support the student?

See Reading Rockets research based reading strategies and resources organized by phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary and writing.

Build background knowledge on the topic and activate prior knowledge.

Support understanding of text by using top-down webs to indicate relationships between the topic, main ideas, and supporting details.

• See video to learn more about top down webs. See link for resources and examples.

Support student engagement by providing choice including incorporating student interest and backgrounds.

• See strategies for providing multiple means of engagement.

• Use NewsELA, commonlit.org, and Read Works to provide the same text at multiple levels.

• Insure student text provides for inclusion of various cultures.

Provide access to digital texts and support with accessibly feature.

• Use accessibility feature of Google Chrome, i.e. text to speech. See resource.

• Provide options for reading including written text and/or online text.

• Use accessibility features within Pearson Realize. For example, have student text read aloud and employ annotation options with sticky notes and highlighting, online glossary

• Print Friendly & Mercury Reader clear away pictures/text to make a cleaner copy of a webpage.

• Read and Write student edition allows text to speech, speech to text, dictionary, and outline creator.

Digital resources offer flexibility that traditional print materials do not. Digital text can have features that are essential for some learners, but are also good for all learners, such as:

• read-aloud capacity using text-to-speech tools,

• flexibility in the display of content (color, contrast, size),

• built-in supports like dictionaries, highlighting, and in-line note taking,

• open and closed captions,

• audio descriptions for video,

• image descriptions.

Summarize texts to help preview upcoming reading or to summarize the content of a reading.

• Rewordify allows the user to paste in text and simplify the language and vocabulary in the text.

• Online Summarizing Tool allows the user to cut and paste text or URL of site, the user is provided with a summary of the text.

Teach student two-column note taking format by providing models, thinking aloud, and scaffolds.

• See video to learn more about two-column note format.

Support comprehension of text with explicit strategy instruction.

• See link for Reciprocal Teaching Resources. Use the strategies of predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing to help support comprehension.

Develop students reading fluency.

• Provide for multiple readings of short texts. Note that research indicates that more than 4 repeated readings of the same text is not useful.

• Insure that students are partner reading for at least 30 minutes of the literacy block.

• Model prosody, expression, and use of punctuation to support reading fluency.

Provide additional opportunity to develop phonics skills.

• See ECRI routines to provide explicit instruction in needed skills. Match routine to student needs based on analysis of student assessment data.

Highlight text features of text features of textbooks such as headings, subcategories, photographs, and vocabulary.

• Lead students in a text feature walk of their book.

• Provide direct instruction around visual analysis of text including how to interpret info graphics and charts.