Reading

Students in our reading programs make substantial gains in reading skills and reach their full potential as readers. We offer a variety of courses for all levels, from mastering phonics to reading classics.

ReadingTown Approach
  • We assign challenging books to students that are above their reading level measured by E-Scan Reading Test after they have read books in their reading level and have passed comprehension quizzes on E-Learning Gate successfully for first 12 sessions.
  • We have set students' reading goal incorporating the ratio of fiction (literature) and nonfiction (informational) books based on the Common Core State Standards: up to 4th grade (50:50), up to 8th grade (45:55), and up to 12th grade (30:70).
  • We advise students to borrow at least one fiction book and one nonfiction book for each session and assign more nonfiction NextBuks than before.
  • We have expanded our book collection for in-center library as well as on-line library to let students read books in various genres.
  • We have implemented the following new curricula to meet the Common Core State Standards in reading:
    • (1)Nonfiction Reading: to meet the requirement that students should read challenging informational texts.
    • (2)Speed Reading: to meet the requirement of foundational skills that emphasize sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
    • (3)Vast Reading: to have students read vast range of books.
    • (3)Reading Drill: to help students gain higher scores in statewide standardized tests based on new standards of Common Core.
  • We have diversified our vocabulary program to help students gain more grade-appropriate and domain-specific words, discern nuances of words and meaning in context, and finally use common, grade-relevant Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word.
Introduction
To build a foundation for college and career readiness, students must read widely and deeply from among a broad range of high-quality, increasingly challenging literary and informational texts. Through extensive reading of stories, dramas, poems, and myths from diverse cultures and different time periods, students gain literary and cultural knowledge as well as familiarity with various text structures and elements. By reading texts in history/social studies, science, and other disciplines, students build a foundation of knowledge in these fields that will also give them the background to be better readers in all content areas. Students can only gain this foundation when the curriculum is intentionally and coherently structured to develop rich content knowledge within and across grades. Students also acquire the habits of reading independently and closely, which are essential to their future success.

They must also be able to determine or clarify the meaning of grade-appropriate words encountered through listening, reading, and media use; come to appreciate that words have nonliteral meanings, shadings of meaning, and relationships to other words; and expand their vocabulary in the course of studying content.
Standards
Through reading a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational texts in a range of subjects, students are expected to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspective.

The standards establish a "staircase" of increasing complexity in what students must be able to read so that all students are ready for the demands of college- and career-level reading no later than the end of high school. The standards also require the progressive development of reading comprehension so that students advancing through the grades are able to gain more from whatever they read.

The standards mandate certain critical types of content for all students, including classic myths and stories from around the world, foundational U.S. documents, seminal works of American literature, and the writings of Shakespeare.

Whatever they are reading, students must also show a steadily growing ability to discern more from and make fuller use of text, including making an increasing number of connections among ideas and between texts, considering a wider range of textual evidence, and becoming more sensitive to inconsistencies, ambiguities, and poor reasoning in texts.
Key Ideas and Details
  • Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
  • Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
  • Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
Craft and Structure
  • Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
  • Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
  • Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
  • Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
  • Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
  • Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
  • Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

Vocabulary

The standards expect that students will grow their vocabularies through a mix of conversations, direct instruction, and reading. The standards will help students determine word meanings, appreciate the nuances of words, and steadily expand their repertoire of words and phrases. The use of vocabulary extends across reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The vocabulary standards focus on understanding words and phrases, their relationships, and their nuances and on acquiring new vocabulary, particularly general academic and domain-specific words and phrases.
  • Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.
  • Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
  • Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.