Reading Courses

Close Reading Strategies for Fiction
Description:  The Close Reading Strategies for Fiction course covers the multi-sensory, explicit, sequential learning of the art of understanding various fiction genres—how to analyze, synthesize and use critical thinking skills to understand fictional text, through learning the structure of narrative writing with the assistance of graphic organizers, vocabulary development, and class discussions. This course is a great starting place for those with weak reading comprehension skills, which can open up the world of literature for them. For students with comprehension skills in fictional text, who, with explicit instruction in story structures, could improve their understanding of this type of text. The course may be combined with Expository Reading Comprehension or taken singly.

Comprehension Imagery
Description:  The Comprehension Imagery course covers the multi-sensory, explicit, sequential learning of the art of concept imaging in order to increase the ability to form pictures or movies in one’s mind while reading. This skill expands language/reading comprehension, reasoning, critical thinking and expressive language skills. Students who have an underdeveloped ability to picture and remember scenes while they read, dramatically affecting comprehension, memory and critical thinking.

Reading and Writing Children’s Literature
Description:  This back to the basics course exposes students to a variety of children’s literature. Students read, discuss and critique various genres of literature with a focus on setting, plot, characters, theme, and overall appeal to children. After being exposed to numerous pieces of children’s literature, students write their own children’s stories. These stories involve character, setting, and plot development, as well as the incorporation of various themes. Students do not have to be artisans for this class they just need a desire to study this genre and have a positive attitude.

Reading and Writing Technology Tools
Description:  In this course, students will be introduced to extensions, apps and technology websites that assist in reading and writing. The course will introduce Snap & Read, Co:Writer, and Learning Ally, as well as other helpful tools depending upon students’ academic needs. Any student who would benefit from assistive technology for academic success in reading and writing should consider this course.

Reading Between the Lines
Description:  Reading Between the Lines allows students to hone their skills at making inferences. In order to infer meaning from text, readers must combine information from the text with their own background knowledge to make a theory about what is possibly true. Students will practice the skill using a variety of media such as short film clips, photos, cartoons, song lyrics, and short passages. When they have gained proficiency, they will apply the skill to short stories.

Reading Development
Description:  The Reading Development course teaches the multi-sensory development of advanced decoding skills through understanding of linguistic structures (phonetic and meaning-based patterns in words of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, French origins, grammar), multi-syllabic word attack, vocabulary development, specific comprehension and encoding (spelling).  Reading Development is for students who need further explicit instruction to improve decoding and related reading skills after Word Attack Skills or Reading Tutorial.

Reading Fluency
Description:  The Reading Fluency course covers the development of reading fluency through intensive oral and silent reading practice linked with comprehension, multi-syllabic word recognition mastery and vocabulary development. This course is for students whose reading speed/accuracy is below the norm and impairs memory and comprehension of what is read. This course may be taken more than once and for different term lengths.

Reading for Academic Purposes
Description:  Reading for Academic Purposes covers the multi-sensory, explicit, sequential learning of the art of understanding nonfiction text through focusing on collecting, gathering, organizing and synthesizing information in a text through the use of graphic organizers, teacher modeling, class discussion, notetaking and summarizing. A particular emphasis is put on identifying main ideas and supporting details. This course is for students who have emerging comprehension skills with academic text. Students will practice reading with curiosity, resilience, and empathy. This course may be combined with the Reading Comprehension for Fiction course or taken singly.

Reading Tutorial
Description:  The Reading Tutorial course provides a multi-sensory, alphabetic-phonetic and sequential approach to basic word attack, reading, spelling, and writing skills, explicitly teaching the association between written symbols and their spoken sounds and the correspondence between the sequences of sounds and the sequences of letters. Students read words in isolation, participate in sound dictation, spell targeted words and sentences, read orally from appropriate skill level trade books, and write short pieces toward mastery of these skills. This course is designed for students with significant weaknesses in basic decoding skills, who may also have coexisting challenges that present difficulty for the student in making effective progress in a group of more than three students. Students appropriate for Reading Tutorial are in need of individualized, explicit, intense instruction in order to make effective progress. Students will practice reading with curiosity, resilience, and empathy. This course may be taken only with the recommendation of the reading department and may be taken more than once.

The Novella
Description:  The Novella course provides an opportunity for students served by the reading department to enjoy the classics while sharpening their vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension skills. Through the use of carefully selected literature, students will continue to foster a love of reading while exploring classic novellas. Students will practice reading with curiosity, resilience, and empathy. This course can be used as a precursor for literature courses in the English department.

Understanding Informational Texts
Description:  The Understanding Informational Text course explicitly teaches methods in a multi-sensory, sequential way to assist students in understanding and applying information from expository text about various topics. Students will learn about different organization structures of informational text and the unique features that are encountered when reading a nonfiction passage, text, or article. Students will be able to navigate information and have a better understanding of the content. Students will practice reading with curiosity, resilience, and empathy. This course is for students that need support in collecting, synthesizing, and studying information from nonfiction academic texts. This course may be taken in combination with the Close Reading Strategies for Fiction course or taken singly.

Word Attack Skills
Description:  The Word Attack Skills course teaches the multi-sensory development of decoding skills through recognition and understanding of linguistic structures (phonetic and meaning-based patterns in words of Anglo-Saxon and Latin origins, along with basic grammar), multi-syllabic word attack, vocabulary development, specific comprehension and encoding (spelling). This course is for students with relatively weak multi-syllable decoding and spelling abilities, perhaps causing dysfluent reading and weak comprehension.