High School

Best Practices for High School Classroom Teachers (in all subject areas) need to become more effective teachers of reading.

• Understand that reading is a process of learning to gain meaning from print
• Model reading for pleasure as well as for content
• Read aloud to students for various purposes, i.e., to demonstrate the thinking process, to share the sheer joy of reading
• Provide pre-reading, during reading and post-reading activities
• Implement reading and writing strategies across the curriculum
• Work with the reading specialist to meet individual student needs
• Monitor reading progress of students
• Provide time for students to practice and enjoy reading
• Provide a variety of reading experiences (lab, text, newspapers, current events materials), some student self-selected
• Consciously and consistently implement the goals of the school-wide reading program
• Collaborate in whole-school planning for a literacy learning plan that is interdisciplinary.

Source: International Reading Association http://www.reading.org/focus/adolescent.html

Best Practices for High School Students
Even when adolescents have mastered basic reading and writing they require support and learning opportunities that will enable them to grow into confident, independent readers and writers.

• High school students need
• Access to a wide variety of reading material that appeals to their interests
• Instruction that builds the skill and desire to read increasingly complex materials
• Assessment that shows their strengths as well as their needs
• Expert teachers who model and provide explicit instruction across the curriculum
• Reading specialists who assist students having difficulty learning how to read
• Teachers who understand the complexities of individual adolescent readers
• Homes and communities that support the needs of adolescent learners

Source: ReadWriteThink, established in April of 2002, is a partnership between the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the MarcoPolo Education Foundation. http://www.readwritethink.org/

Best Practices for High School Leaders
The way to improve reading and writing achievement is to get students to read and write a great deal in all courses. School administrators should “lead the charge” in showing the importance of literacy. These 10 steps will help school leaders emphasize reading and writing:

1. Offer staff development in reading and writing across the curriculum and provide follow-up to help teachers implement the new techniques.
2. Ask teachers to include reading and writing strategies in every lesson plan. Monitor the plans and observe teachers as they implement strategies in the classroom.
3. Get teachers to model reading and writing skills that contribute to higher student achievement in various subject areas. Teachers can demonstrate the strategies during a literacy segment at every faculty meeting.
4. Develop a summer reading policy. Contact schools with successful programs.
5. Require high school students to read 30 books or their equivalent across the curriculum each year (Council for Basic Education’s recommendation)
6. Ask teachers to include at least one essay question on every exam. Encourage teachers to use writing as a way for students to display their knowledge in all classes.
7. Get language arts teachers to develop a school wide scoring guide that all teachers can use in grading students’ written work. Language arts teachers can show the other teachers how to use the guide.
8. Ask each teacher to develop a plan to ensure that every student will write at least one research paper per year in each course.
9. Show the importance of literacy. Ask teachers to post examples of quality writing and to model good reading practices. Get them to emphasize the value of literacy in the workplace.
10. Recognize teachers and students who do quality reading and writing. Ask local businesses and organizations to present awards for excellence in literacy

Source: SREB’s school improvement initiatives are supported by state consortia; the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement; the Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds; the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation; the Mott Foundation; and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Best Practices for High Schools
International studies show that U.S. readers get off to a fast start but the data indicate that the level of student reading performance drops off in the middle and high school years. The reading, writing, and language development of adolescents is just as important and requires just as much attention as that of beginning readers.
Problems include:

• Few high schools hire reading specialists to help individual students.
• Teachers of all subjects need to become more effective teachers of reading.
• Pre-service education courses do not sufficiently prepare high school teachers to respond to the needs of adolescent learners.
• Funding for reading in high school drops off.

Therefore high schools should:

• Develop a school-wide plan for literacy
• Interpret assessment data and make information available to teachers and school-based educators.
• Insure that reading instruction continues to be provided.
• Provide staff development opportunities for all staff in reading.
• Provide reading specialists who can assist both struggling readers and teachers who provide instruction in content areas.
• Develop an assessment plan that includes formative assessment
• Provide wide variety of print and non-print resources for all students, including material that appeals to linguistically and culturally diverse students.