Resources for our "Summer Reading"

During this time off from classroom teaching, we hope not to intrude too greatly into your chance to recharge and recover from a very busy school year. Perhaps when you have some time to read, please look over these resources that might assist us in learning more about what others have done to improve their students' reading skills.

Building Reading Proficiency

The first resource is located here:

Building Reading Proficiency

This is a pdf file, and if you right-click the link above, you can save the file onto your computer, so you can read it at your convenience. Here's my description, from an email sent in April when we first thought about looking at this document to help us with critical reading at SBP:

The original paper was published in 2000 by Southeast Developmental Laboratory, and here is a short description of their ‘mission’ as quoted from their website: “SEDL partners with educators, administrators, parents, and policymakers to conduct research and development projects that result in strategies and resources to improve teaching and learning.”

This paper describes reading PROGRAMS and reading STRATEGIES. I actually became more interested in the STRATEGIES that were described starting on page 74 of this pdf document. (The document is in the attachment on this email).
1. Background Knowledge Strategies
2. Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR)
3. Dictated Stories/ Language Experience Approach (LEA)
4. Fluency Strategies
5. Generative Vocabulary Strategies
6. Independent Reading Strategies
7. K-W-L-Plus Strategy
8. Literature-Based Reading Instruction

9. Reader Response Strategies
10. Reading Guide Strategy
11. Reading Workshop Approach
12. Reciprocal Reading Strategy
13. Study-Reading Systems
14. Text Mapping Strategies
15. Vocabulary and Concept Mapping Strategies
16. Word Analysis Strategies

Originally in April, I was more interested in the Strategies, but as I read this document more closely, I saw that the foundational ideas merit some of our attention also.

On to the second resource.

Reading Next: A Vision for Action in High School Literacy

The second resource is located here:

Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research

As with the previous link, you should right-click the link above to save the document file onto your computer, so you can read it at your convenience.

This is a similar document to the one published by SEDL, and explores the background of teaching reading, and discusses some strategies to improve reading skills in middle and high school.

While checking to see if the link above still works, I encountered a parallel document, also published by the Carnegie Corporation, entitled "Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools"  I downloaded this document, and it is also very helpful, if not to us in the Critical Reading committee but also to those in the Blogging, the SAT/PSAT committee, and the Writing Contest Committee.  Here is that link (also, right-click the link to save the pdf file to your computer):

Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing 

Whew!  That's a lot of reading for us.  With apologies for this intrusion into your vacation, I hope that you will find these documents helpful, and that these will help all of us to continue our discussions about improving critical reading (and also writing) skills of our students at St. Benedict's.

Please leave a comment, or even better, please JOIN this blog.  Email me at my school email account so I can let you know how (easy it is) to become part of this blog.  We can even have our discussions here!

I sincerely hope you have a terrific summer!
- Dennis