Curriculum Portfolio

Course Description

This course helps students improve their reading ability by focusing on the following: comprehension of the text, implementing reading strategies, acquiring new vocabulary, extensive reading, and fluency. The texts used in this course are primarily narrative and are organized in simple paragraphs.

Course Emphasis

Each percentage represents the amount of class time per week focused on the specified aspect. For example, 10% would equal approximately 25 minutes of class time each week. That time can be used in a single chunk, or split between days across the week.

Please see the Assessments and Learning Experiences section below for more information about how to teach and assess each of the emphases. 

• Reading - 70%
  • Skills, strategies, & comprehension - 40%
  • Fluency building - 10%
    
  • Oral fluency & pronunciation - 10%
  • Vocabulary - 10% 
• Listening & speaking - 15%
• Writing - 10%
• Grammar - 5%

Course Books and Materials

• Required student text: Reading Explorer 1, 3rd edition (National Geographic Learning)
  • w/ online workbook (acceptable, but NOT required): ISBN 978-0357123515
  • w/o online workbook (also acceptable): ISBN 978-0357116258

• Supplemental texts (available for teacher checkout in Room 103/TRL; limited copies/scans can be made for student use) 
  • Reading Power 2, 4th edition
    • vocabulary skills instruction and practice
    • reading skills instruction and practice
    • thinking in English instruction and practice (helps build reading fluency)
    • reading fluency passages with comprehension questions
      
    • teacher guide with activities answer key
    • test bank book with extra activities for tests/quizzes (a pdf of which can be viewed here)
      
  • Reading Horizons Library, Books 1-2 (passages within the 600L-800L range)
    • reading fluency passages with comprehension questions
    • can also be used as supplemental reading passages in class, for quizzes/tests, as oral fluency passages, and texts for practicing previewing, skimming, and scanning

• At least 2 books from the FC Book List
  • Teachers use discretion when deciding which books, how many books, and when.
  • Other level-appropriate books may be substituted for those on the list with permission from the Reading Skill Area Supervisor.

Course Learning Outcomes

1. Understands level-appropriate* texts
   1. Understands explicit main ideas.
   2. Understands explicit major details.
   3. Identifies author’s purpose.
      
   4. Identifies author’s point of view.
   5. Maintains sufficient reading rate for comprehension. 
2. Effectively implements appropriate reading strategies.
   1. Previews texts for topics and main idea.
   2. Scans texts for major and salient minor details.
   3. Recognizes basic organization patterns.
   4. Connects content to background knowledge.
   5. Makes inferences about concrete ideas.
   6. Skims texts for general main idea.
   7. Increases reading rate. 
3. Acquires new vocabulary words.
   1. Uses context and background knowledge to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words.
      
   2. Uses common affixes to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words.
   3. Recognizes high-frequency general vocabulary.
   4. Understands high-frequency general vocabulary.
4. Reads level-appropriate text* aloud comprehensibly. 
   
   1. Pauses appropriately for common punctuation (,:;) and sentence boundaries (.?!). 
   2. Uses correct intonation at all sentence boundaries (.?!). 
   3. Correctly pronounces high-frequency general vocabulary.
      
   4. Maintains sufficient reading rate for comprehension.
      

*Level-appropriate text type information is found on the Level Descriptors page.

Assessments and Learning Experiences

Pronunciation

1. Oral Reading. While most reading happens silently, students will most likely be asked to read aloud at some point in many different settings, and therefore need to practice and improve their fluency in oral reading. Oral reading activities for all skill levels can focus on word-, sentence-, and passage-level fluency.

Reading

1. Assessment. Since the reading emphasis is compiled of various aspects of the course, assessment in this category involves more than one component. Such assessments should be done often to aid students in being able to evaluate their comprehension and mastery of the skills/strategies being taught.


2. Assigned Reading. Like with extensive reading, students engage in reading large amounts of text with various activities to check for comprehension and completion. In assigned reading, the ELC has determined appropriate books for the level (see your level's book list). Thus, during a semester, there can be a blend of both extensive reading and assigned reading.


3. Extensive Reading. Students engage in reading large amounts of text with various activities to check for comprehension and completion.


4. Fluency Building. Students should engage in fluency activities on a regular and consistent basis. Fluency activities should 1) be easy 2) focus on the main idea 3) encourage students to go fast 4) provide sufficient opportunities to practice.


5. Reading Skills & Strategies. Reading skills and strategies help learners improve their reading comprehension, independent of the language itself. Since the ultimate goal of all reading instruction is to help readers improve their overall comprehension and ability to use the information in a text, a significant portion of class time should be spent teaching and practicing reading skills and strategies. Which reading skills teachers should focus on in their particular class(es) is found in the Course Learning Outcomes.


6. TOEFL Practice (Academic Levels). Although beneficial, TOEFL practice should not become the sole focus of a reading class. All reading instruction and practice, if focused on the course learning outcomes, will help students to prepare for the TOEFL. However, in Academic level courses, occasional TOEFL-specific instruction and activities are recommended (but not required).

Vocabulary

1. Assessment. Even though vocabulary may already be assessed ELC-wide, vocabulary assessment can still occur within a Reading course. However, assessment should be focused on words discussed within the class or words from a specific context (i.e., a reading passage).


2. Productive Skills. In order to master the usage of vocabulary, students need to practice producing the target words. 


3. Receptive Skills. In order to better comprehend vocabulary, students need to receive instruction on and practice receptive vocabulary skills. 

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