2007-08 K-12 Comprehensive Research-Based Reading Plan

Greek/Latin roots, suffixes and prefixes aid in student comprehension of disciplinespecific words.In science, teachers will be provided support as they have students design andimplement experiments, analyze results, and defend conclusions. Students are askedto explain discrepancies between their own results and the published results ofothers. Teachers will also ask students to perform peer reviews. They will reviewpublished works and evaluate the reasoning and evidence presented by the author,evaluate the reliability of sources and synthesize information from a wide range ofscientific sources to formulate a coherent explanation of a scientific phenomenon.Students will use critical thinking to resolve conflicting information as they arguewhether they accept or reject the evidence and rationale presented by the author.The World Languages department in Brevard Public schools has developed commonassessments in French and Spanish that integrate the three modes of communicationincorporate 21st Century skills and make cross-curricular connections. These commonassessments and all the activities that have been developed to support preparation forthese assessments are IPA's - Integrated Performance Assessments. They begin with atext-based interpretive task (reading or listening) that leads to an interpersonal task(discussion with a partner) to gather more information to deepen understanding of thetopic as well as personalize the information and make it more meaningful to thestudent. All of the information gathered through the interpretive and interpersonaltasks is evaluated and synthesized in order to create a presentation (oral and/orwritten) that will demonstrate a deepened and expanded comprehension of the text.The text that is interpreted is theme-based, cross-curricular and cross-cultural and canbe either literary or informational. Graphic organizers and CRISS strategies areincorporated into both the interpretive and interpersonal tasks in order to facilitatethinking and processing information for the presentation task.Schools have a variety of resources to utilize as they increase explicit comprehensioninstruction in content area classrooms. Literacy coaches, curriculum contacts andteacher leaders continue to facilitate professional learning communities focused ontext-based discussions. Available resources include CRISS strategies, Thinking Maps,FCAT 2.0 Item Specifications, Text Complexity rubrics and the MESH Vocabulary andComprehension Strategies Handbook.8. How will writing be incorporated across the curriculum to deepen text comprehension?Anytime writing is included as a response to reading, students are asked to demonstratetheir comprehension to a deeper extent. As we prepare teachers to implement theCommon Core Content Literacy Standards, we will be emphasizing answering textbasedquestions and utilizing the Comprehension Instructional Sequence. In addition,social studies teachers will be utilizing Document Based Questions in their classroomsand all English/language arts and Intensive Reading teachers will be trained on how toincorporate Advanced Placement writing strategies within their classrooms. Scienceteachers will focus on having students perform critical analysis of published works andargue whether they accept or reject the evidence and rationale presented by the author.39 | P a g e