School-Wide Reading Policy
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:
- Use strategies and skills to create meaning.
- See the connection between their reading and their writing.
- Read a variety of genres for different purposes.
- Connect and respond to the text.
- Choose to read independently.
- Summarize what they read, connect the text to what they already know and apply this prior knowledge to the text.
- Develop vocabulary as appropriate to all content areas.
- Decode and comprehend multisyllabic words.
- 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?
Writing in Content Classes: Please note that additional or replacement writing assignments may be incorporated to ensure alignment with the Common Core Learning Standards as more information about the CCLS assessments becomes available.