Educational Leadership - October 2010

tinuing to support the seven remaining students through a quarter-long reading support class called Reading Lab, also taught by an academic literacy instructor. The goal for this class is to help students not only pass the exam but also gain the skills necessary to do the difficult reading that comes with being an upperclassman and future college student.

Now that the program is in its third year, we’re pleased to see that we’ve found an effective way to lure our students into reading. Students in the 2009–10 class responded similarly to those in the inaugural class. Their mean and median scores showed accelerated growth at three times that of their peers who were reading at grade level. And their enthusiasm was evident at the summer Books and BBQ event that brought both cohorts of Academic Literacy 9 students together for food, fun, and conversation about summer reading. Students who have been through the program now describe reading intervention with phrases like fun, comfortable, a place to feel smart, my favorite class, and totally sick. EL

References

Allington, R. L. (2006). What really matters for struggling readers: Designing research-based programs (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.

Guthrie, J. T. (2008). Engaging adolescents in reading. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Ivey, G. (2009, May). Building adolescent interventions at the local level. Presentation at the International Reading Association National Convention, Minneapolis, MN.

McCarty Plucker, J. (2009). Eastview High School Academic Literacy 9: A quasi-experimental case study for the implementation of a reading intervention program at a Minneapolis/Saint Paul suburban high school. EdD Dissertation, Argosy University, Twin Cities.

Miller, D. (2009). The book whisperer: Awakening the inner reader in every child. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

You can’t put a price on student achievement... so we don’t.* e
*Yes, it’s free!
eDoctrina® is an easy-to-use planning & assessment tool
that powers your school/district’s use of data-driven decision
making, standards-based curriculum mapping, formative
assessments and RTI (Response to Intervention).
And now it’s free! There’s no catch. This isn’t a limited
time offer. It’s just a great opportunity to kick-start your data
program and receive the training/support
necessary to maximize its effectiveness.

Jennifer McCarty Plucker is a reading coordinator and literacy specialist at Eastview High School in Apple Valley, Minnesota; Jennifer.Plucker@gmail.com.