This document outlines an agenda and objectives for a teacher training session on reading principles for secondary students. The session focuses on defining key reading principles, examining the inquiry process for assessment and instruction, and administering reading assessments to diagnose student reading levels. Teachers practice giving feedback using a protocol and learn how to use assessment data to identify student needs and target instruction, especially for struggling readers. The session prepares teachers for upcoming training that will focus on specific reading principles and instructional strategies.

1. Overview of Reading
Principles
TEACHING FOR
RESULTS SESSION
THREE

2. Objectives:
 DEFINE reading principles unique to the secondary
grade levels as a prerequisite for effectively
assessing and developing these principles in
students.
 EXAMINE and articulate the purpose of the inquiry
process and internalize the steps in the process to
begin implementation with students.
 EXAMINE, administer, and score reading
assessments to diagnose student reading proficiency
skills.
 REFINE skill in using Strong Voice through practice
and targeted feedback.

3. Agenda:
 5:00- 5:15 Opening
 Defining the Reading Principles Through the
Lens of Struggling Readers
 5:15-6:25 Section 1
 Introduction to the Inquiry Process
 6:25-6:40 MIY Protocol
 Strong Voice
 6:40-7:45 Section 2
 How Do Diagnose Reading Achievement Levels?
 7:45-8:00- Closing
 Reflection and Next Steps

4. Opening:
 Take out Handouts 3.1 and 3.2 (pgs 96-98). We will
be reviewing the need for adolescent literacy skills
and its particular importance for struggling readers.
 Review Handout 3.1 silently, then discuss with a
partner the following questions from the handout:
 What was the most critical key point from this list?
Why?
 How do the literacy principles relate to the
academic work your students do each day in all of
their classes?

5.  We will now look at these same literacy
principles through the lens of the struggling
readers in our classes.
 Review the Key Points About Struggling Secondary
Readers (Handout 3.2) and discuss, with a partner, the
questions printed on the bottom of the handout.
 Have you experienced these types of readers in your
classrooms? If so, with what specifically have they
struggled with in relation to the four principles? (Do you
find that most of your students struggle with fluency?
Motivation?)
 Given this research on what struggling secondary
students need, would you modify your thoughts on what
you believe your unique role to be as a secondary ELA
teacher?

6. Reflect:
 Flip back to Handout 1.7 (pg 78). Record
any new thoughts you have about your
unique role as a secondary ELA teacher.

7. Agenda:
 5:00- 5:15 Opening
 Defining the Reading Principles Through the
Lens of Struggling Readers
 5:15-6:25 Section 1
 Introduction to the Inquiry Process
 6:25-6:40 MIY Protocol
 Strong Voice
 6:40-7:45 Section 2
 How Do Diagnose Reading Achievement Levels?
 7:45-8:00- Closing
 Reflection and Next Steps

8. Section One: Introduction to the
Inquiry Process
 We will now examine the role of reading assessment. In this
section we will learn about how assessment and data will be
used in this course. We will later explore how to use that
information to inform motivation and instructional strategies
for developing fluency, vocabulary and comprehension
 Definition of Assessment:
Assessment is an ongoing process of determining the level at
which students are performing and whether or not instruction
is working.
 Key Message:
Assessment is a key component to closing the
achievement gap. Teachers need to use ongoing
assessments to be highly effective in the classroom.

9.  Take out your homework (Handout 2.9, pg
93)
 Turn and Talk to a partner about the
following questions:
■ In what ways is assessment a key
component to supporting struggling readers
and closing the achievement gap?
■ Which of the assessments (listed on
Handout 2.9) have you already gathered,
examined or given? How have you used this
data?

10.  We are going to read a short article that
illustrates the importance of ongoing
classroom assessment and its implications.
 Read Handout 3.7 (pg 29): Ongoing
Classroom Assessment.
 As you read, underline the important parts in
the article and once you are finished, write
down two major ideas you want to
remember and return to.
 Share Out

11. Discussion:
 How do the main points in the article relate to
the conversations you had in pairs at the
beginning of this section?
 What aspect of this article do you find useful in
terms of your experience as educator?

12. Key Messages from the Article:
■ Assessment options are meaningless unless their results are used
to make decisions for improving student achievement.
■ In a culture of assessment, students are deeply involved in the
assessment process.
■ ‘Gradebooks’ should be used for charting useful information in
making decisions, not just recording assignment completion.
■ In a culture of assessment, data is analyzed and decisions are
founded solidly on how students are working toward the ongoing
goal of increasing student achievement.
■ Teachers should become critical consumers of the curricula theyuse
to teach, and they modify the curriculum based on the assessment
data to assure mastery of the content standards for all students.

13. The Inquiry Process:
 Take a look at handout 3.8 (pg 130) as well as the
poster demonstrating the Inquiry Process
 Take in the points from the process chart for a couple
of minutes. Try to make sense of it and generate
questions if any aspect confuses you.
 Next, let’s walk through this process together.
 It is very important that all participants understand
the inquiry process—and ask questions about it if
you don’t—because it will be your guide to making
the most effective data-driven instructional choices in
each session.

14. Questions (record responses on chart
paper):
 What do you think will be effective about
the process?
 What questions do you have about the
process?
 How much of this type of inquiry have
you done before, even if the steps were
not called the same things?

15. Looking ahead:
 Participants will use the inquiry process in this course
to diagnose, set goals, plan, teach, evaluate, and
respond, first with student reading and then with
student writing. You will have a chance to touch base
with colleagues on the process routine and data they
have collected in subsequent sessions. There will also
be an entire session about data and responding to
student needs.
 One of the primary challenges of teaching secondary
ELA is determining how to address a wide range of
learning styles. The next section addresses the first
step in effectively teaching students with a wide range
of abilities—namely, diagnosing current achievement
levels.

16. Let’s chart some challenges:
Step One: Identify 3-5 major challenges with the Inquiry
Process and record.
Step Two: In small groups, you’ll each be assigned a
challenge. Try to generate ideas and strategies you
can use to overcome the challenge. Record.
Step Three: Gallery Walk. As you walk, use your post-its
to offer additional solutions or strategies.
Step Four: Each group share out new solutions from
post-its that you think might be particularly useful.
Step Five: Complete Handout 3.14 (pg 145).

17. Agenda:
 5:00- 5:15 Opening
 Defining the Reading Principles Through the
Lens of Struggling Readers
 5:15-6:25 Section 1
 Introduction to the Inquiry Process
 6:25-6:40 MIY Protocol
 Strong Voice
 6:40-7:45 Section 2
 How Do Diagnose Reading Achievement Levels?
 7:45-8:00- Closing
 Reflection and Next Steps

18. MIY Protocol: Strong Voice
 Review Look Fors
 Assess using video
 In groups of 3-4, one person will practice
skill while one person will initiate 3-4
minor infractions (e.g. calling out
answers, looking in desk, tapping pencil,
failing to track speaker). Other members
will use Look For form to give feedback.
 Switch until all members have practiced.
18

19. Section Two:
 This section introduces an assessment suite that will be
used to measure student interest, reading abilities and
content knowledge. When combined, these assessments
ultimately help teachers measure both literacy skills and
content knowledge—both critical elements to measure in
any secondary ELA course.
 Two of these tools—the San Diego Quick Assessment and
the Cloze Silent Reading Comprehension Assessment—
are the optional assessments that you may use to monitor
student progress in literacy skills development.
 Additionally, we will introduce other formative assessment
techniques that can be used to assess each of the reading
principles introduced in this course.

20.  Let’s look at Handout 3.10 together and
discuss (pg 133):
■ What is the difference between these
inventories?
■ What kind of information do these provide?
■ What implications does this information have
for the planning and/or delivery of instruction
within your classroom?
■ What implications does this information have
for the materials you need?

21. Key Messages:
■ The questions on many interest inventories investigate a
student’s experiential background, reading patterns, books and
magazines read, and other interests.
■ Some inventories (e.g., Sample Three) provide information on the
student’s attitudes and emotions based on aspects of his/her
personal, social and academic lives.
■ Interest inventories can be teacher-created, found online or
purchased through publications or commercial sources.
■ Inventories can be delivered as a personal interview, or they can
be distributed for students to complete independently.
■ Participants need to be sensitive to diverse family/guardian
situations before administering survey questions, such as
some of those on samples Two and Three, which assume
students have a mother and father in their lives.
■ Developing an understanding of the interests of the students
allows the teacher to use and build upon these interests to
increase engagement and motivation.

22.  The following informal assessments provide
two quick ways to gain some understanding
of the reading abilities and needs of the
students within your classroom.
 Let’s take a look at the San Diego Quick
Assessment of Reading Ability on Handout
3.12.
■ What information does the San Diego Quick Assessment
provide?
■ How might the information from the assessment affect my
instruction?

23. Next, let’s take a look at the Reading
Comprehension Assessment on Handout
3.13 (pg 142).
 The Cloze Reading handout included in
the Participant’s Manual is just a sample.
You are asked to create your own cloze
assessments from resources you are
using in your classrooms (e.g., novels,
textbooks, newspaper articles) using the
guidelines for developing cloze
assessments provided in Handout 3.13.

24. Discussion:
■ What information does the Cloze Silent Reading
Comprehension Assessment provide?
■ How does this information relate to the content domain?
■ How might the information from the assessment affect my
instruction?
■ In what ways does the cloze assessment complement the San
Diego Quick Assessment?
■ Why might it be important to develop cloze assessments using
both informational/expository text and narrative text?

25. Key Points:
By developing cloze assessments using your
own resources, you are able to connect
assessment in an authentic way to what you
are teaching during any given lesson or unit. I
encourage you to develop cloze assessments
using a wide variety of material (informational
text as well as narratives) in order to assess
student abilities with multiple types of text
and help prepare students for the multiple
types of reading required both in and out of
the classroom. Fluency with expository text
(e.g., textbooks, technical documents, policy
statements) is critical to secondary students’
success.

26. Key Points continued:
■ There are numerous reading assessments that provide a
variety of information about readers.
■ It is important to evaluate what kind of information each
reading assessment is providing about the student. Most
assessments give only a partial view of the reader.
Informal reading observations and conferences should be
taken into consideration in addition to most assessments
when determining the reading ability of a student.
■ One method for determining students’ reading abilities that
is often forgotten is using student records. Examining
results from the previous year’s state-mandated tests and
other information within a student’s fi lecan provide
valuable insight.

27. Assignment: Administer the Cloze
and SD Assessments with your
 You will be responsible for testing at least 20 students from one of your classes, with
both assessments. You should select a class that would benefit from further
differentiating of instruction and should select students from a range of reading levels
(i.e., strong, average and struggling readers). Other suggestions for selecting students
include choosing a class period that comes right after a conference or prep period to
allow time for set up, or choosing the most challenging class
 You will need to have all the assessments completed and scores recorded by Session
6.
 You will use the results of the assessments to set goals and plan differentiated
instruction for the students.
 Pay attention to the “directions” on handout 3.12 and the “directions” and “scoring” on
handout 3.13.
 Due to the wide variation in your students’ reading levels, you will likely need to
administer several different cloze passages.

28. Agenda:
 5:00- 5:15 Opening
 Defining the Reading Principles Through the
Lens of Struggling Readers
 5:15-6:25 Section 1
 Introduction to the Inquiry Process
 6:25-6:40 MIY Protocol
 Strong Voice
 6:40-7:45 Section 2
 How Do Diagnose Reading Achievement Levels?
 7:45-8:00- Closing
 Reflection and Next Steps

29. Objectives:
 DEFINE reading principles unique to the secondary
grade levels as a prerequisite for effectively
assessing and developing these principles in
students.
 EXAMINE and articulate the purpose of the inquiry
process and internalize the steps in the process to
begin implementation with students.
 EXAMINE, administer, and score reading
assessments to diagnose student reading proficiency
skills.
 REFINE skill in using Strong Voice through practice
and targeted feedback.

30. Questions to consider
 How can the assessments discussed in the previous
section help assess the four literacy principles
reviewed earlier in the session?
 Why is it important to assess and monitor student
progress toward mastery of the literacy principles?
 How can the inquiry process introduced earlier in this
session help teachers monitor student progress and
instructional efficacy?
 How could the information from the San Diego Quick
and Cloze Assessments help you target instruction
for struggling readers?

31. Moving forward:
■ The first three sessions enabled participants to gain a general
understanding of the reading principles that constitute the ELA
content domain. These sessions also equipped participants with
assessment tools to diagnose students’ needs, with specific
attention paid to needs of struggling students.
■ The next series of sessions will focus in-depth on each of the
reading principles. Sessions 1–3 provided foundational
knowledge of the ELA content domain, within the context of
struggling students and tools to concretely identify student needs,
and have all set the stage for an in-depth examination of each of
the literacy principles.
■ During each of the upcoming sessions we will explore teaching
strategies unique to each of the reading principles in order to
better equip participants with instructional choices that addresses
each student’s specific needs.

32. Moving forward
■ It will be helpful for participants to immediately begin
diagnosing students, using the assessment tools reviewed
during this session, in order to link student needs to the
strategies reviewed in subsequent sessions.
■ Session 4 will focus on fluency and vocabulary, Session 5
on comprehension, and Session 6 on motivation, which
will serve as a bridge from the reading principles to a
focus on writing.
■ Throughout the upcoming reading principle sessions keep
in mind the concrete needs of struggling ELA students as
discussed during this session and how the strategies
unique to each of the literacy principles may need to be
modified for these students.

33. Homework:
 Using handouts 3.12 and 3.13 administer assessments on at least one of
your students and identify the challenges with implementation
 Return for the next session prepared to discuss implementation
challenges.
 Complete Handout 3.15. To do this, you will need to choose a student
with a typical course schedule and look through the texts that this student
is expected to read on a given day. They should write down all of the
vocabulary terms that the student is not likely to be familiar with.
 Bring Handouts 2.7, 3.14 and 3.15 with you to the next session.
 Bring a unit you are or will be teaching that could benefit from additional
or modified vocabulary strategies.