Building Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level: A Guide to Resources

What is it? How does it work?

Background:
Literacy instruction based on trade books appropriate for the students' age and interests.

Overview:
In the last few decades, many secondary reading programs have been developed around the use authentic, published literature, a practice traditionally limited to the English classroom. Although the application of Literature Based Reading Instruction varies by teacher, the common element is children's, young adult and/or adult literature as the basis for literacy instruction. These trade book (as opposed to textbook) programs may be organized in a variety of ways to scaffold struggling readers. Three popular models are core literature, text sets and thematic units (Gunning, 2000).

Core Literature Programs
A core literature program includes a variety of trade books selected by the district or teacher to be used for intensive reading. The books, read by the whole class or by groups, give students a common ground for building conversations about texts and a reference point for comparing and contrasting books and stories. Trade book selection should consider student interest, but without some student choice in the process, this advantage can be lost. To scaffold struggling readers, teachers using a core book strategy present the books in a variety of ways (i.e., read alouds, audio taped versions, partner reading).

Text Sets
Text sets are simply trade books that are all related in some way. For example, the teacher or students may choose to read several books by the same author, several books about one point in history, or one genre such as diaries or memoirs. As with a set of core books, if students are reading book within the same set, even if they are not all reading the exact same book, they have a common ground for discussion. Text sets allow for the teacher to differentiate the instruction, so that struggling readers have books at their independent reading levels.

Thematic Units
An unit that organizes instruction around a central theme can help struggling readers to build background knowledge and to connect their understanding to other contexts, such as classes, work, and home. Thematic units may draw from a text set or a core set of trade books and orchestrated with other classroom teachers.