School-Wide Reading Policy

At Fort Hamilton High School our goal is to develop life-long, competent, confident readers who read for pleasure, and implement reading as a life-long skill.

Objectives in all disciplines

Students will be able to:

1. Use strategies and skills to create meaning.
2. See the connection between their reading and their writing.
3. Read a variety of genres for different purposes.
4. Connect and respond to the text.
5. Choose to read independently.
6. Summarize what they read, connect the text to what they already know and apply this prior knowledge to the text.
7. Develop vocabulary as appropriate to all content areas.
8. Decode and comprehend multisyllabic words.
9. Develop skills to comprehend increasingly complex texts 

Expectations in all disciplines

• Teachers will expect students to read at home through participation in the school wide reading program.
• Teachers will model reading strategies and habits of effective readers in all content classes.
• Teachers will provide daily opportunities for students to read and write in various genres.
• Teachers will have access to and use a variety of genres for instruction.
• Teachers will assess student comprehension and hold students accountable for reading assignments.
• Teachers will use and monitor a variety of reading methods: demonstration, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, summarizing text dependent questions,etc.
• Teachers provide opportunities for and monitoring of independent and summer reading.
• Teachers will select text by considering it for the necessary supports and challenges it offers readers. 
• Text should contain visual, structural and meaningful information. Appropriate levels of support are provided by the teacher through guided, shared, and independent reading approaches.
• Students will acquire an expanded vocabulary across content areas, including decoding and comprehending multisyllabic words.

Evaluations:

• Annotated Bibliography for each class
• Includes text, magazine, news and journal articles, related literature—fiction and non-fiction, etc.
• Essays (ie. argumentative essays)
• College entrance assessments: ACT, Periodic Assessments (Acuity, Scantron), PSAT, SAT I and II
• I-Search and research reports
• NYSESLAT
• Questions for extended response
• Reading notebooks

Evaluation Questions:

• Can students identify and find features of specific genres?        
• Are students reading a variety of genres?
• Can readers compare and contrast different genres?
• Can they access materials in a variety of genres?
• Can they use the correct genre for a specific purpose?
• Can students read independently and construct meaning?
• Can students decode and comprehend vocabulary in context across content areas?
• Can students use critical reading skills to comprehend context across content areas?
• Can students move to increasingly complex texts?