RE@D 339

February 2009 Edition

February saw a reopening of the file

drawer on RE@D 339.

I’m out!

New moves were made inthe IS 339 school-widereading initiative in February2009.

Following an intensefocus on the ELA test duringDecember and January,reading became the topic ofconversation for teachingagain during the principal‟s„State of the School‟ addressat grade level meetings.

The 20 minute overviewby Mr. Jason Levy revisitedthe Reading Frameworkfrom the professionaldevelopment on ElectionDay.

“Explicit teaching ofreading strategies will bealigned to each subject anddifferentiated according tostudent needs,” said Mr.Levy.

In addition to there beingmore professionaldevelopment to follow foreach subject area, therewould also be special

training for AIS teachers andparaprofessionals.

Ms. Abby Lovett, theschool‟s Special EducationCoordinator described thenew steps as an excitingopportunity to address poorunderstanding of basicreading conventions.

“It will mean somechanges in the way that weoperate, but it will ensurethat we have morecoordination across theschool, and greaterproficiency of skills toaddress students‟ readingdevelopment.”

Clever reading moves

for Tech Tiger 339ers

Level 1

ELL

/ Bil

Level 2

Whole

school

How are we differentiating the reading

framework?

Extension?

United we stand, but with students divided we stand an even better chance…

• RE@D 339 already featured REDin its title, but up until February only Rigor had been emphasized.

• During the ‘State of the School’ address though, a new focus was placed on differentiating the 5 key reading skills according to different student needs.

CONVENTIONS

VOCABULARY

ELABORATION

ORGANIZATION

FOCUS

It was also suggested that we

frontload ‘Focus’ too much,

particularly with struggling readers.

In other words, we need to ensure

that we don’t ignore the other skills.

Math

Social

Studies

Science

• The second aspect of differentiation, was the matching of specific reading skills (and best strategies) to each subject area.

We also got a clearer picture of the

relationship between the ‘big 5’

Reading SKILLS and the PDP Reading

STRATEGIES

Post-reading

During reading

Pre-reading

READING SKILLS

READING STRATEGIES