Answer Key: Why Millions Of Kids Can’t Read

Lesson Plan: Relearning How To Teach Reading…The Correct Way

II. While Reading Activities

Word Inference

  1. outlier  |ˈoutˌlīər| noun  a person or thing differing from all other members of a particular group or set: an outlier in Faulkner’s body of work | then there are the corporate outliers, people who just don’t fit into the culture of the company.
  2. proficient  |prəˈfiSHənt| adjective-competent or skilled in doing or using something: I was proficient at my job | she felt reasonably proficient in Italian.
  3. literacy|ˈlidərəsēˈlitrəsē| noun-the ability to read and write.
  4. theory |ˈTHirē|noun (plural theories) a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained: Darwin’s theory of evolution.
  5. enshrine  |inˈSHrīnenˈSHrīn| verb [with object] (usually be enshrined)  • preserve (a right, tradition, or idea) in a form that ensures it will be protected and respected: the right of all workers to strike was enshrined in the new constitution.
  6. decode  |dēˈkōd|verb [with object] • analyze and interpret (a verbal or nonverbal communication or image): a handbook to help parents decode street language.
  7. contextual |kənˈteksCHo͝oəl| adjective  • depending on the preceding or following parts of a text to clarify meaning: they have limited practice in working out the meaning of unfamiliar material from contextual clues.
  8. prompted  |präm(p)t| verb [with object]   assist or encourage (a hesitating speaker) to say something: [with direct speech] : “And the picture?” he prompted.
  9. successful  |səkˈsesfəl| adjective-accomplishing an aim or purpose: a successful attack on the town.
  10. goal |ɡōl| noun-the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result: going to law school has become the most important goal in his life.

 Grammar Focus: Structure and Usage

I-1-an

Bethlehem is not an outlier.

II-1-a

Harper attended a professional-development day.

III-3-a

This was a class on the science of reading.

 

Reading Comprehension

True /False/NA-Statements

  1. F-Jack Silva is the chief academic officer  for Bethlehem, Pa., public schools.
  2. T-Silva didn’t know anything about how children learn to read.
  3. F-One excuse that educators have long offered to explain poor reading performance is poverty.
  4. T-Kim Harper  new  the director of literacy for Bethlehem school.
  5. T-One theory assumes learning to read is a natural process.
  6. F-The primary task for a beginning reader is to crack the code.
  7. T-The contextual guessing approach is what a lot of teachers in Bethlehem had learned.
  8. F-When a child comes to a word she doesn’t know,There should be no guessing, no getting the gist of it.
  9. T-In the class, teachers spent a lot of time going over the sound structure of the English language.
  10. T-The starting point for reading is sound, and it’s critical for teachers to have a deep understanding of this.