Content

 When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be
reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books.
You will be reading meanings.
~ Harold S. Geneen ~

Comprehension

As Geneen says, reading is more than just reading the words. It involves comprehending or reading for meaning. Students, who are comprehending what they read, go through a process in which they sample, predict, confirm, and integrate what they have read. Students sample before they read something to see what it contains and if it catches their interest. Next, students use titles, pictures, the summary, etc. to help them figure out what is going to happen. They also continue to predict as they read the text and try to figure out what will happen before they read the next section. As they continue to read, the students check to see if their predictions are right or wrong. This is called confiming. If their predictions are correct, they continue to read, predict, and confirm. If their predictions are wrong, they reread to figure out where they went wrong. The final step in the reading process is integrating. Students make what they have learned from their reading part of what they already know. They do this through assimilation and accommodation. If what you read matches what the student already knew, it becomes assimilated or added to their knowledge as additional information. However, if what the student has read does not match or fit with what they already know, then an accommodation must be made to expand or adapt their existing knowledge to make room for this new information.

Guided Practice

Students will receive guidance in understanding and practicing the above comprehension process. In addition, students will be given practice with determining vocabulary meaning through content, synonyms, and affixes. In addition, students will be given practice using comprehension skills such as making inferences, comparing and contrasting, reading for details, supporting details, identifying the author's purpose, identifying cause and effect relationships, determining fact from opinion, determining point of view, forming questions, etc. 

Genres

The students practice the comprehension process and comprehension skills through a variety of material. They will read novels, short stories, nonfiction selections, poems, fables, myths, folk tales, and legends.

Assessment

The students will take unit tests, complete ISAT practices with multiple choice and extended response questions, and do projects to assess what they have learned.