Academic Reading is designed for ninth grade students whose standardized test scores demonstrate that they would benefit from direct instruction on reading and vocabulary strategies. Students will complete diagnostic tests in several skill areas at both the beginning and end of the school year to track their growth. The curriculum is comprised of units that address skills that “good readers” internalize including previewing, predicting, summarizing, questioning, and analysis of text structure. In addition to these lessons, students will also receive weekly vocabulary instruction. Finally, students will engage in daily sustained silent reading both inside and outside of class. Comprehension of these novels is assessed both orally and in writing through book talks, presentations, class discussions, journals, projects, more formal writing, and a variety of other authentic assessments. Academic Reading students are simultaneously enrolled in both this course and English I; both classes are taught by the same English teacher. Although both Academic Reading and English I have separate curricula, Academic Reading will include some pre-teaching and re-teaching of skills and strategies taught in English I.
Science Academic Reading - The HSHS Science Department offers two academic reading (AR) courses. These courses provide students an opportunity to learn science while they also focus on improving student reading skills. GeoPhysics AR and Biology AR are co-taught with a science teacher and a reading specialist. Throughout the year, students learn science as they learn basic reading strategies, such as previewing, predicting, identifying main ideas and supporting evidence, annolighting and summarizing. These courses also give students experiences reading multiple sources of scientific writing, such as readings from their textbook, articles and novels
