CTE Reads!

EastValley Tech-prep

Academic Integration Project - 2009

SkylineHigh School

Mesa, Arizona

Team Members:

Ann Tebo, CTE Literacy Coach

Carilyn Knill, Reading and English Teacher

Kathy Wooton, Computer/Business and Industrial Tech Teacher

Peggy LaShier, MPS Computer/Business Program Specialist

About this project:

(Presentation Skills)

  • These lessons are not content-specific, and can be incorporated into any junior or senior high CTE course.Like it or not, all teachers need to be reading teachers, and these lessons will help teachers address the challenge of getting students to read in their classes.
  • A series of 13 short lessons have been developed to teach specific reading strategies that will enable students to be more engaged and active readers, and to better comprehend the complex material that is required to be read in CTE courses.
  • Each strategy will take 15-30 minutes to teach, and should be integrated into subsequent lessons.
  • When appropriate to do so, using your course’s text would be preferable to the reading samples that have been included.
  • Following this cover sheet is a “Teacher’s Checklist” of things that an educator can use to see if he/she is planning effective lessons that include reading.

Lesson Table of Contents

Topic
1. / Previewing Text / Text Structure
2. / Building Background Knowledge
3. / Inferences
4. / Identifying Main Ideas
5. / Identifying Critical Details
6. / Paraphrasing
7. / Summarizing
8. / Thinking Aloud – Modeling the thinking process
9. / Questioning what has been read
10. / Critical Thinking
11. / Visualizing
12. / Note taking while reading
13. / Vocabulary -Figuring the meanings of unfamiliar words

The Teacher’s Checklistfor

Student Reading Success

By using this checklist you can be assured that you are preparing lessons which will help your students to comprehend assigned reading selections, and to be ready to apply what they have learned in their CTE classes, labs, and life.

Have you:

  • “Chunked” the reading material into manageable units so that students are not overwhelmed?
  • Reviewed with your students the selection’s or text’s organizational patterns and given them tips about how to best approach reading the material?
  • Previewed the text to determine key concepts/vocabulary that the students need to know?
  • Included activities and strategies that will help students develop a clear understanding of the concepts?
  • Selected activities to assess, activate, and build students’ background knowledge?
  • Selected suitable graphic organizers to help students see relationships between key concepts?
  • Clearly communicated the purpose(s) that students should keep in mind while reading? (For example – lab performance, discussion, quiz)
  • Developed “during reading” questions that will help students use higher level thinking skills, or better yet, have them develop those questions while they read?
  • Selected or written post-reading questions and activities that require students to make meaningful connections and be able to apply what they have learned?