Reading Advantage

1
Reading Advantage

• Published by Great Source Education Group,
• a division of Houghton Mifflin Company
• Laura Robb, author and presenter

2
Reading Advantage is a literacy intervention
program for adolescent learners

• Builds background knowledge and vocabulary
• Improves comprehension
• Develops students ability to think about and
  analyze texts

3
Reading Advantage (RA) was developed by
experienced educators

• Laura Robb, Powhatan School, Boyce, VA
• James Baumann, University of Georgia
• Carol Fuhler, Iowa State University
• Joan Kindig, University of Virginia
• Avon Cowell, New York City schools
• Jo Worthy, University of Texas/Austin
• R. Craig Roney, Wayne State

4
Reading Advantage reaches middle and high school
students reading below grade level.

• Level A, grades 23
• Level B, grades 34
• Level C, grades 45
• Level D, grades 56
• Three new levels in late 2005/early 2006 will
  expand the top and bottom ranges

5
Teachers can use Reading Advantage in a wide
range of learning situations

• Self-contained class
• Small group of special education students
• Pull-out or push-in tutorial
• Small group of students receiving extra
  instruction
• Afterschool and summer school programs

6
Reading Advantage buildson motivation research.

• High-interest reading materials are on topics
  that interest students in middle and high school
• Students had input into magazine themes

7
The reading materials are accessible to
struggling readers.

• Every selection has a Lexile measure
• The reading level of each of the four magazines
  in a kit increases at a rate that builds
  students reading confidence
• Each magazine contains 70 nonfiction and 30
  fiction
• Magazines include a mixture of short selections
  and longer texts

8
Design contributes to accessibility and
motivation.

• Great Source researched popular teen magazines to
  develop the RA magazine design
• Information presented in ways that are visual, as
  well as textual, allows students different access
  pointsphotos, captions, maps, diagrams, bold
  headings, bulleted lists

9
Design contributes to accessibility and
motivation, cont.

• Students will also encounter these visual
  features in textbooks and nonfiction trade books

10
Reading Advantage develops students emotional,
social, and text confidence.

• Placement Tests place students at levels where
  they experience success and ultimately progress
• Magazines and paperbacks are motivating students
  will want to read
• Lesson design offers opportunities for small
  group instruction and self-reflection

11
Reading Advantage develops students emotional,
social, and text confidence, cont.

• Teachers Editions include models of key reading
  and thinking strategies

12
The authors and editors of Reading Advantage have
crafted an intervention program that focuses on
these areas

• Vocabulary
• Word knowledge (phonics, structural analysis)
• Comprehension
• Reading fluency
• Writing
• Assessment

13
Reading Advantage builds vocabulary knowledge
with skills and strategies such as

• Association
• Word relationships
• Context

14
Strong context in the magazine text

• Expands students word knowledge
• Develops automaticity

15
Strong context in the magazine text, con.

• Is developed by teacher think-alouds in the
  Teachers Edition

16
Word knowledge is built mainly through word sorts.

• Hands-on word sorts focus attention on sound and
  spelling patterns
• Pattern knowledge builds phonemic awareness and
  analogous thinking if you know the ain pattern
  in main, you can read rain, gain, regain,
  maintain
• Word study also incorporates prefixes, suffixes,
  roots, multi-syllabic words, and special kinds of
  words (homophones, eponyms)

17
Students response

• iC
• clip
• nip
• pink
• strip
• flick

iCe rice strive mice gripe mine bride spine
Y cry try by
oddball eye
18
Comprehension

• Before/during/after reading strategies and
  learning experiences
• Guided reading lessons
• Application of reading strategies to text

19
Comprehension, cont.

• Focus on vocabulary and meanings of words
• Discussion questions develop students ability to
  read critically and connect ideas and concepts
  between texts

20
The Teachers Edition supports improving
students comprehension.

• Research support is included with model strategy
  lessons

21
The Teachers Edition supports improving
students comprehension, cont.

• Five key reading strategies form the focus of
  strategy instruction
• Monitor understanding
• Summarize
• Understanding text structure
• Engage
• Critical reading

22
Writing

• Students write to deepen their knowledge of
  vocabulary and comprehension

23
Writing, cont.

• Students learn to write in a variety of forms
  such as letters, diary entries, and
  well-constructed paragraphs opinion,
  information, descriptive, compare-contrast

24
Reading fluency

• Plays, interviews, poems, etc. create real
  reasons for rereading and practicing fluent
  reading
• Students build fluency with material they CAN
  read
• Aspects of fluency include observing punctuation,
  using appropriate expression, and reading at an
  appropriate pace

25
Word study contributes to reading fluency.

• Word study supports fluency by helping students
  see pattern and meaning relationships
• Word sorting develops fluency as students sort
  only words they can pronounce and understand
• A knowledge of roots, prefixes, and suffixes
  enables students to examine an entire word
  de/con/struc/tion

26
Teachers support reading fluency

• By pre-teaching tough words, making sure students
  can pronounce them
• By reading aloud so that students hear a model of
  expressive reading

27
Independent reading

• Twelve original paperback books come with each
  level, and the Teachers Edition (TE) provides
  strategies for engaging students with each book

28
Independent reading, cont.

• Each eZines CD-ROM has twenty additional articles
• A bibliography of theme-related books appears in
  each TE magazine overview

29
Assessment

• There are two kinds of placement tests
• Group reading inventory

30
Assessment, cont.

• Individual reading inventory

31
Assessment, cont.

• Progress tests check students understanding of
  comprehension and vocabulary
• mid-magazine tests
• magazine tests

32
Assessment, cont.

• Student surveys and checklists encourage teacher
  observation and support instructional decision
  making
• Questions in the Teachers Edition prompt
  frequent, informal checks on how well students
  comprehend the material and the strategies