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 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 Poetry

Description:  Reading Poetry is designed to harness the unique auditory qualities of poetry to enhance students' phonemic awareness and overall reading fluency. Through the exploration of diverse poetic forms—from classic sonnets to modern free verse—students learn to recognize and appreciate the sounds and rhythms of language. Students explore how sound shapes meaning in poetry, engaging in activities that decode the relationship between letters and sounds. They move through group and individual exercises focused on isolating and manipulating phonemes, thereby sharpening their auditory skills. Fluency is developed through guided oral readings and performance workshops that encourage expressive and precise delivery. By analyzing poetic devices and the deliberate use of sound, students not only refine their technical reading abilities but also learn to appreciate the artistry of language while enhancing their interpretive skills.

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 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.