Reading: A Contact Sport

Participants: Jerri Charlebois, Jackie Cianfrocco, Heather Sullivan

Overview/Purpose:
Tackling difficult text can be a very challenging, frustrating experience for many students. This unit focuses on providing each student strategies that will help him/her conquer their reading assignments and understand their own personal strengths and weaknesses when it comes to reading. Students will learn that successful readers interact with the text to truly understand the message. The goal is to have students become self-aware, confident, and independent readers.

The first stage of this unit will involve an assessment of each student’s reading comprehension abilities. Then, using differentiated instruction, students will learn how to use strategies and techniques to help them become active thinkers and readers. Students will utilize a checklist of strategies to help them understand and complete reading tasks in the resource room setting and across the curriculum. By modeling and using direct instruction, teachers will demonstrate how to be active readers. Quarterly, students will be given an assessment to determine progress.

Length of instructional time: One to two weeks to assess students abilities and teach the various reading techniques and strategies, then continue implementing checklist through school year.
Grade level/audience: This unit may be utilized at grades nine through twelve.

Standards Addressed:
New York State Standards:

English Language Arts
Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding
Standard 2: Language for Literary Response and
Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation
Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction

Plattsburgh City School District Standards:
Critical Thinker
Lifelong Learner
Effective Communicator

Understandings:
1. Students will understand that successful readers are actively engaged in reading text through multiple modalities.
2. Students will understand effective readers use strategies and techniques to comprehend written text.

Essential Questions:
1. Why read?
2. In what ways do effective readers obtain information from text?
3. What do readers do when they don’t understand what they have read?

Declarative Knowledge:

  1. Students will understand that there are different purposes to reading.
  2. Students will understand that there are different stages of reading: pre-reading, during reading, and post reading.
  3. Students will understand that all information on the text page is important, such as headings, tables, illustrations, and graphs.
  4. Students will understand the importance of imagery in understanding text.
  5. Students will understand the value of graphic organizers when trying to construct meaning from the text.
  6. Students will understand how to use a dictionary or online dictionary site.
  7. Students will understand how authors use figurative language to convey meaning.
  8. Students will understand the importance of investigating the information that they may not understand.
  9. Students will understand the concept of foreshadowing.
  10. Students will understand the concept of prediction.
  11. Students will understand what kind of learner they are (visual, kinesthetic, auditory, etc.)

Procedural Knowledge:

  1. Students will be able to identify their purpose of reading
  2. Students will be able to identify the main idea of the reading.
  3. Students will be able to identify facts and details in the reading.
  4. Students will be able to explain the sequencing of the reading.
  5. Students will be able to identify vocabulary that they do not understand and seek out definition.
  6. Students will be able to identify figurative language in a reading passage and seek assistance if confused.
  7. Students will be able to explain inferences within the reading.
  8. Students will be able to use prediction when reading.
  9. Students will be able to use study guides to help them construct meaning of reading passages.
  10. Students will be able to use highlighters to identify important aspect of the reading.
  11. Students will be able to use moodle and navigate site.
  12. Students will be able to access many sources of reference to uncover information.