The focus of the Reading and Writing across the Curriculum Team has been to develop tools and strategies for teachers to provide support as students read in content area textbooks and respond in writing to their reading. Dr. Louise Bohr from Northeastern Illinois University and the Teacher Leader, Jerry Woyneroski, worked closely with the team to explore strategies and implement them in classrooms.
Members of this team expressed a need to know more about what their students could do so that they could better guide their literacy growth. While the standardized test scores they were given helped to measure achievement and provided a beginning grade level, they did not provide true diagnostic profiles of the students to make informed instructional decisions. Dr. Bohr and Mr. Woyneroski worked with teachers to develop a local literacy assessment. This test was administered to all incoming freshmen to examine the reading and writing skills in specific content areas.
The emphases on reading and writing across the curriculum now make up two-thirds of the Wells School Improvement Plan for 1998-1999. Every member of every department is now responsible for teaching reading and writing. The school has instituted "Tuesday Tune-Ups," during lunch periods on Tuesdays. At these sessions, both Wells teachers and staff from Northeastern have presented strategies to improve students' reading and writing.
Wells Community Academy High School Links
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| Reading
and Writing Across the Curriculum |
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