For Other Professionals
Supporting a School-Wide Reading Initiative with Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
By: Stan Paine
How can school leaders support school-wide reading initiatives? Here are keys to leading the way in the areas of reading curriculum, instruction, assessment, and motivation.
Leading the way in reading curriculum
- Know the criteria for selecting a strong core reading program
- Make sure that the reading program selected is strong enough to help most kids succeed
- Know how your program reflects the "five big ideas" in reading
- Help staff select supplemental and intervention programs that have been shown to work
- Support staff in developing and using CSI maps (grade-level plans that specify which core, supplemental, and intervention programs will be taught and for how many minutes each day to students at each instructional level)
- Learn the curriculum along with the teachers
Leading the way in reading assessment
- Learn as much as you can about the formative assessment used by your school
- Learn how to collect data in this system and help collect data periodically
- Learn how to use and interpret these reports to guide instruction
- Use these reports to guide the regular grade level reading planning meetings
- Talk to teachers regularly about the data on their students' reading performance, including ideas for refining instruction
Leading the way in reading instruction
- Conduct classroom walk throughs regularly to gauge the strengths and needs of teachers' reading instruction
- Talk to teachers about the teaching and learning process, especially related to reading
- Give lots of affirmation, praise, and encouragement about teachers' reading instruction
- Provide further training, as needed, to strengthen teachers' reading instruction
- Support grouping of students for reading lessons
- Provide adequate time (through the schedule) for reading instruction and work to avoid interruptions of reading lessons
- Support outcomes over processes; the process is only as good as the outcomes
Leading the way in motivation to read
- Go to classes and read to students
- Let students come to your office to read
- Visit classes for reading groups; praise success
- Read some of the books that kids are reading and talk to them about what they are reading
- Motivate students to read through programs like Reading Counts and Battle of the Books
- Facilitate reading related special events for kids
- Be a progress monitor periodically
- Teach a small group once in a while
- Challenge kids to read to reach a goal
- Take some of your reading to a class to read for silent reading time (let kids see you read)
Paine, S. (2004). Supporting a School-Wide Reading Initiative by Working with Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Variables. Retrieved June 26, 2008, from http://reading.uoregon.edu/appendices/prin_tools.php.
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