Improving Adolescent Literacy Skills

According to recent reports from the National Council of Teachers of English, approximately half of high school graduates lack the reading skills needed to pass first-year college courses, and only 59 percent of the students tested were considered ready for college level work. Equally alarming, the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that 70 percent of middle and high school students score below the proficiency level in reading achievement. The lack of improvement in literacy achievement has many negative implications for the nation’s economy and ability to compete globally. To be competitive in the current job market, American youth have to possess far more advanced literacy skills than those required of any previous generation.
The first portion of this course will examine the recent studies and statistics of current trends regarding adolescent literacy. Participants will research federal policy for improving the performance of adolescents. The second part of this class will focus on reading interventions for adolescent learners. Participants will study the philosophy, implementation, and effectiveness of various reading intervention programs including: Reciprocal Teaching, Strategic Instruction Model, Accelerated Reader, Corrective Reading , Fast ForWord, Read 180, etc. In addition, this course will provide numerous reading strategies and interventions to use with adolescent students before, during, and after reading. Some of the strategies/interventions featured in this course include: anticipation guides, the Frayer Model, Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA), Selective Highlighting, Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review (SQ3R), Exit Slips, Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) and many more! With the resources and information provided in this course, teachers will be able to create dynamic lessons which help foster student success.

ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only