Our Design

Starting this year, all students are taking an accelerated leveled literacy course where they increase their reading stamina by reading for up to 30 minutes each class period. The course meets three times per week, twice for 72 minutes, and once for 44 minutes. High level courses have about 30 students. Medium courses have 20 or less, and our lowest course has 15 or less. Students are learning reading skills that increase comprehension. They are choosing books that are just beyond their reading level, which they now know, to push them to the next level. Some students who are many grade levels behind are receiving small group and 1:1 pull out reading workshops from our Literacy Specialist. Our after-school Beacon program is supporting students with leveled readers and discussion using skills taught in their Accelerated Literacy course.

Our Results

1. Our students are more excited about reading and raising their scores than ever before.
2. We have accelerated at three times the pace of last year. Last year, we increased the number of students reading on grade level, as measured by the Reading Inventory from 21 percent to 25 percent in nine months. This was through daily reading in all class and some shared reading scaffolding. This year, we have increased from 26 percent to 30 percent in the first 3 months.
3. We hope to increase to 35-40 percent by May.