Teaching Reading at The

Secondary Level
Robin G. Fritsch -
On a scale of 1-10...
I feel knowledgeable and professionally supported in providing explicit reading
instruction at the secondary level.
1 = I dont have the time or instructional strategies to provide intensive intervention

5 = I provide some opportunities for my struggling readers to build word recognition, fluency,
and vocabulary within my standard Tier 1 curriculum but dont have the time for intensive
intervention.

10 = I am a superstar and provide intensive intervention within my core classroom, I have a

tool bag full of strategies to compel growth for individualized interventions, and receive
ongoing professional development to augment my instruction.
Where are we now?

According to 2015 NAEP data:

24% of eighth-grade students were below basic reading level.

Important across every academic domain.

Reading below grade level in third grade is among the strongest predictors of
dropping out of school later.
 1.) Goals: Staff Creates Measurable Goals
2.) Assessment: Create Data Collection and Data
Analysis System
3.) Assessment: Implement School-wide Intense
Intervention
4.) Instruction: Select, Learn and Use of
Comprehensive or Core Reading Materials
5.) Instruction: Create REading Groups that Maximize

Survey says.... 6.)

Learning
Instruction: Allocate Sufficient Time for REading
Classes
7.) Implement Instructional Strategies and Techniques
What are we thinking here at 8.) Leadership: Increase Reading Leadership
9.) Leadership: Increase Staff Collaboration and
BV? Communication about Reading
10.) Professional: Organize and Maximize Professional
Development and Coaching
11.) Commitment: Increase Parent Involvement in
Reading Enhancing Reporting to Parents
 1.) Goals: Create
Measurable Reading
Survey Says... Goals
2.) Instruction: Allocate
Sufficient Time for
Reading Classes
Where are WE now?

According to 2015 PARCC testing results, only According to 2015/16 McGinnis Middle School
13% of 8th Grade students at McGinnis Middle Eighth Graders, 82.65% report that they find
School met proficiency goals. more joy in texts they select themselves rather
than texts that are chosen by their teachers.
In 2014, 74.63% of Eighth Graders achieved
proficient or advanced, and 71.64% scored
proficient.
Reading Leadership Team & Action Plan
Priority #1:
- Administer baseline reading assessment
- Discuss assessment results and identify
students in need of intensive intervention,
struggling students, and Tier One learners
- Collaborate to establish instructional
strategies.
- Begin Interventions
Priority #2:
- Establish ways to incorporate fluency,
word study, and intervention based
vocabulary into core-curriculum
- Monitor students
- Bring Flagged Students to monthly RTI
meeting and discuss opportunities for
additional outside reading support.
Curriculum: Content vs. Instruction

Content goals should impact instructional Dedicated Reading Specialists outside core
strategies, these can help us break away from classrooms. A successful reading program
styles and lesson strategies that are less specifies who should provide instruction for
effective for specific content targets. accurate implementation.

Identifying appropriate materials to achieve Increasing motivation and student interest.

content goals.
Curriculum

Goal #1: Goal #2

-- Utilized Maze and C-Tach Data -- Shifted instruction routine to incorporate

fluency (4 min /10 min) practice.
-- Collaborate with Kindra on RTI plan for W.O.
and identified class-wide instructional shifts for -- Utilize word study practice for vocabulary and
struggling readers. used assessment results to revisit instruction.

-- Meet during plan each Friday to Analyze and -- Implemented intervention-based vocabulary
Reflect on Data instruction.
 STUDENT X:
RTI Reality:
11/17:
42 WPM -- 99%
Growth vs. comprehension
12/1:
Motivation 30 WPM --50%
comprension
The Challenge

In a 2015 NAEP report supports these ndings Wigfield, A., Gladstone, J. R., & Turci, L. (2016). Beyond
cognition: Reading motivation and reading comprehension.
and indicates that many children in middle
Child Development Perspectives, 10(3), 190-195.
school actively resist engaging in reading. In doi:10.1111/cdep.12184
another study, middle school students
overwhelmingly described the texts they read in
science classes as boring, irrelevant, and
difcult to understandhardly a recipe for
positive motivation to read (192).
Next steps...

Goal #1: Goal #2:

-- Collaborate with Kindra to come up with an
assessment that will help us to demonstrate
growth.
--Monitor and document motivation (student
perceived)
-- Keep utilizing data and communication to
make instructional shifts that can happen
without impacting content targets. (Content vs.
Instruction)
--Make deliberate shifts to increase motivation

--Collaborate with administrators to move

strugglers from other periods so differentiation
can happen with less social pressure.
Further Reading:

Motivating Readers:

Evans, M., & Boucher, A. R. (2015). Optimizing the Power of Choice: Supporting Student Autonomy to Foster Motivation and Engagement
in Learning. Mind, Brain, and Education, 9(2), 87-91.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. "Recognising the power of pleasure: what engaged adolescent readers get from their free-choice reading, and how
teachers can leverage this for all." Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 39.1 (2016): 30+. Educators Reference Complete. Web.
14 Sept. 2016.

Wigfield, A., Gladstone, J. R., & Turci, L. (2016). Beyond cognition: Reading motivation and reading comprehension. Child Development
Perspectives, 10(3), 190-195. doi:10.1111/cdep.12184

Reading Instruction:
http://www.centeroninstruction.org/

http://www.air.org/news/press-release/professional-development-shown-improve-teachers-knowledge-and-some-aspects
http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Staffingstudents/Teaching-the-Teachers-Effective-Professional-Developme
nt-in-an-Era-of-High-Stakes-Accountability/Teaching-the-Teachers-Full-Report.pdf

McEwan, E. K. (2007). Raising reading achievement in middle and high schools:

Five simple-to-follow strategies (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
 3.
List three words that come to
mind when you think about
reading instruction at the

Questions & secondary level.

2.
List two questions you have
Feedback about reading instruction here
in BV or in general.

1.
One thing you learned from
my presentation.
Thank You