Individualized Curriculum

I am currently working with a multitude of special education and general education teachers on designing a reading curriculum that encompasses the uses of chapter books and strong literature pieces. I have chosen books whose topics relate to common core standards, and that are interesting and motivating to students. Students have the opportunity to choose from 4 selected books for genre we will be focusing on. They participate in a book talk, where we observe the cover, reading what its about, and have group discussions on which book should be read. Once a book is chosen, students participate in a pre-reading activity to answer several questions about what they think on the topic they are about to read. These questions are revisited after the reading is complete to see if their thinking has changed, as well as, to identify the author's purpose. The concept behind this curriculum is to teach students how to be active readers. Throughout the book higher order thinking questions were created for the students to answer. The instructional materials are a notebook and pre-made foldable graphic organizers designed for each reading strategy (i.e., summarizing, inferencing, sequencing, clarifying, ect.). Students are introduced to all the strategies, and then have access to them throughout the different reading as a way for them organize their thinking to answer constructed response questions. I currently have several general education teachers implementing concepts of this curriculum from grades kindergarten to fifth. The rationale is that kindergarten would introduce all the strategies through whole group reading, first grade would build on them through small group, second grade would have students work with partners to use the different strategies, third grade students would work independently, and by fourth and fifth grade, students would be able to use the strategies and convert them into well thought out constructed response answers, and/or design their own strategies. Within my resource room of grades 3-5, I have seen a lot of success in my students ability to comprehend, retell, and think through different books they have read. They are highly motivated and extremely proud of themselves when they complete a chapter book. The curriculum is constantly being worked on and improved to help all students be successful.

For one of my students with autism, I created a reading curriculum to increase his comprehension and fluency. His interest was Disney movies, and I was able to take the current Disney movie Junior Novels and create a comprehension workbook that enabled him to identify characters, learn vocabulary, and build a comprehension map of the book as he read. For the assessment, I took him to see the movie in theaters where we also practice social skills on going to a movie. He would have to figure out how much money he needed for the tickets, popcorn and drink. While we watched the movie, I would ask him who certain characters where (we sat in the back of the theater so we wouldn't disrupt the other audience). As we continued to use this method, not only did his comprehension and fluency jump in skill level, but so did his eagerness to read. He began picking book he wanted to read and spent more time reading them independently.