Reading Intervention Supplemental Resource For High School and Middle School Students

Online eBook Content Link

Copy and paste the following link to access my digital eBook.

https://read.bookcreator.com/onTv9wO8rafh450u7UJxqTZsi3Q2/JM1rgJIZQP2h37W-5GSBbA

The digital eBook contains engaging video content and gives the ability for students to hear reading passages read fluently by me personally.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Mr. Boley and I teach reading and writing for high school students. I'm super excited you're checking out my very first book. I'm hopeful you'll learn some reading strategies and enjoy some stories while doing so.

Before we jump into the book, I thought I'd share a little bit about myself. I grew up in a family of readers. My dad was an engineer who loves to read nonfiction books about math and science. My mom can't get enough of reading historical fiction. Growing up, I remember reading in my free time and enjoying it. However, did you know reading is not a natural ability? Unlike spoken language, reading words requires direct teaching, kind of like rewiring your brain. Maybe you hate reading. In fact, you actually may have a good reason for hating it. It's totally possible that while you were a young child you had inadequate reading instruction. This could mean you were never taught how to sound out words properly. It's also possible you had some social challenges that affected your reading skills. Maybe growing up you never had books in the house or your parents rarely sat down and read books to you out loud. A third reason some students have reading problems is that their brain is just different. Some people have brains that cannot link letters to sounds. In some cases, the brain may mix the letters so that the word "dog" becomes "god". A person's brain may also have difficulty memorizing sounds of letters or new vocabulary words. They simply cannot remember any new words which leads to them not understanding anything they read.

Perhaps, you have reading struggles like I mentioned up above. If you do, you're not alone. 15% of all American adults struggle with reading and have one of the problems mentioned above. I wrote this book to not only give you some helpful instruction on how to read but also also to encourage you as a student. Try new things. Make mistakes and move on. If you still struggle with reading and feel you've made no improvement after this book, talk to your teacher. I'm hopeful they'll be as eager to help you as I would be.

Sincerely,
Mr. Boley

Reading Fluency

Fluency has three parts. It is the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression.

In order to understand what you read, you must be able to read fluently. It doesn't matter if you are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. You may need to practice to make your reading smooth or include expression.

Speed - the average high school student reads at 150 words per minute.
The fastest readers can make it to 250 or 300 words per minute.

Accuracy: Students who do not read with fluency sound choppy and awkward; they read one word at a time. Those students may have difficulty with decoding skills, or sounding words out.

Expression: This is when students read passages with feelings that matches what it means. This is the ability to change your voice to show feeling when reading.

Reading Comprehension

Comprehension is simply understanding what we read. To be able to accurately understand written passages, you need to be able to do three things: Decode what you read; make connections between what you read and what you already know; and think deeply about what you have read.

Decode: this is the ability to use your knowledge of letter-sound relationships, things like letter patterns, to correctly read written words. Understanding these letter sounds gives you the ability to recognize familiar words quickly and to figure out words you haven't seen before.

Make Connections: this is linking what you have just read to what you already know. This strategy helps you comprehend text, by activating your prior knowledge and making meaning of what you read.

Think Deeply: deep reading is the active process of thoughtful and deliberate reading carried out to help one's comprehension and enjoyment of a text. The opposite of reading deeply would be skimming with no mental picture or effort in understanding the words.

Vocabulary

Reading vocabulary refers to the words that you can read and understand.
When you know more words, you are more able to understand what you read.

Frayer Model

Definition: Write the meaning of the word found in a dictionary
Characteristics: Write a description or draw a picture of what it would look like
Examples: Write and practice using the word in a sentence
Non-Examples: Write down words that would be the opposite