(PD Title No. ELA3411E)

Promoting Reading Comprehension Skills in Middle School Classrooms

Proficiency Level: Mastery

Subject(s):Language Arts and Reading

Grade(s): 6,7,8

Hours: 30.00

Description: This course will help teachers learn about comprehension strategies that students in grades six through eight need to apply in order to comprehend a variety of text types. Participants will explore the challenges students commonly experience with different types of text, strategies employed by successful readers, and instructional approaches to support students in developing reading comprehension strategies Throughout the course, participants will gather ideas about designing a lesson plan that focuses on developing students’ use of comprehension strategies. The completed lesson plan will be submitted as a final product at the end of the course. Participants will leave this course with many new strategies and resources for fostering the reading comprehension of their students.

Pre-requisites: This online courses is designed for teachers, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers, and proficiency with email and current web-browsers.

Objectives: This course will enable participants to:
• Deepen their understanding of the middle school students’ reading development and effective literacy instruction in grades 6-8
• Deepen their understanding of strategies students use to comprehend text
• Identify students’ use of specific comprehension strategies
• Identify effective methods for teaching students comprehension strategies
• Deepen their understanding of the demands of diverse genres
• Develop lesson plans for teaching strategies for strategies-based instruction and for comprehending expository text
• Deepen their understanding of the demands of online text
• Analyze the ways in which technology can be used to foster students’ reading comprehension