Reading Development (Periods 1 and 5) (Period Prd 5)

Reading continues to become ever more important as our lives become more and more entrenched in environmental print – magazines, books, manuals, billboards, following directions, texting, the internet! The list goes on. Therefore, the development of strong, effective reading skills is crucial for our students to emerge as young adults who “access, analyze, and synthesize information from a variety of sources,” and who “use technology effectively” (SPHS Expected School-wide Learning Results). This Reading Development course journeys from phonics, through comprehension strategies, to writing about what we have read, and to meeting the world’s daily literacy requirements. “Wow! Who knew there was so much to reading?” – 10^th grade student whose grades improved from Ds to Bs. “This was the best year I’ve ever had!” –9^th grade student earning As for the first time.

Wanting to ever improve our students' academic outcome, California has now implemented a new approach for curriculum standards – the Common Core. This approach encompasses a shift from strictly skills-based learning, to more critical thinking, more problem solving, more application of skills, and more technology integration. In your student's work, start looking for:

a balance between literary and informational reading

• emphasis on analysis and critical reasoning in Reading Journals
• increased variety of academic vocabulary
• increased reading comprehension skills specific to informational texts