Focus on Reading

This service provides customized training and ongoing support to middle and high schools. An external facilitator assists teaching staff in aligning instruction and classroom material with state standards for reading and provide school leadership with techniques for building support among staff to implement practices that result in improved outcomes for students. Focus on Reading is based on NWREL's nationally acclaimed Onward to Excellence II (OTE II) school improvement process and our best-selling research synthesis, Improving Adolescent Reading: Findings From Research (2005).

This service can be customized for:

Leadership teams, faculty groups, and professional learning teams of teachers at the middle or high school levels

What Participants Will Learn

• How to use best practices data and research to guide decisionmaking about reading instruction
• To work collaboratively in professional learning teams examining effective practices
• Ways to implement immediate and long-term practices designed to increase student reading proficiency

Accompanying Products

Improving Adolescent Reading: Findings From Research

Format

This service is offered in various configurations: as a one-day introductory workshop with follow-up print and Web resources, on a modular basis, or as a comprehensive school reform process. Modules are customized to meet a school's needs but are designed around three broad areas:

1. Leading School Improvement provides strategies to change the learning environment to better meet the reading needs of all students
2. Assessing Strengths and Challenges compares school and teacher practices to research-based practices and assists teachers in using data to align instruction and classroom materials with state reading standards.
3. Improving Learner Outcomes teaches faculty effective instructional practices to improve students' reading proficiency and supports teachers as they adopt new practices through a structured team approach.

Contact

Deborah Davis

800-547-6339, ext. 644

Send her an e-mail

As a nonprofit organization, NWREL works to make our services affordable to all schools. Price will be based on the number of participants, travel to your location, and the level of customization your organization requires.