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

Primary Outcomes:

• Transaction with Text
• Motivation
• Fluent Decoding
• Linguistic Knowledge
• Background Knowledge
• Making Inferences
• Self-Regulated Comprehending

Motivation:

primary outcome : The emphasis on engaged reading can build student motivation. Motivating aspects of STL include cooperative learning, the use of authentic literature, and support for success with challenging, higher-order thinking.

Decoding:

• Basic Decoding
  possible outcome: Students practice oral reading and receive coaching from their teachers and peers on learning to say and use new words.

• Fluent Decoding
  primary outcome: Training occurs for two days in the summer and monthly throughout the year. Teachers participate in weekly group meetings and receive feedback on from mentor teachers who have observed them in the classroom.

Language
Comprehension:

• Comprehension processes addressed:
  • Making associations
  • Predicting
  • Generating questions
  • Generating mental imagery
  • Clarifying
  • Elaborating
  • Summarizing
  • Rehearsing
  • Evaluating
• Linguistic Knowledge
  primary outcome: The Word Mastery component helps students develop skill in learning new words through context as well as through structural analysis.

• Background Knowledge
  secondary outcome: Teachers help students activate and build background knowledge prior to reading. Knowledge likely will result from the increase in engaged reading.

• Making Inferences
  primary outcome: Explicit instruction and questions during reading help students build skill in making inferences.

• Self-Regulated Comprehending
  primary outcome: Students receive instruction in and practice using metacognitive self- checking strategies.