"The only way to learn how to read is by reading, and the only way to get students to read is by making reading easy."
- Frank Smith, Joining the Literacy Club
Literacy Skills
Literacy is the ability to process information in ways to benefit oneself and society through reading, listening, speaking, and thinking. Like Common Core State Standards, which focus on learning through content-literacy-based instruction, MAX Teaching encourages routine reading, writing, speaking, and listening across all content areas to strengthen higher order thinking skills.
Disparity in Literacy Skills
Achievement gaps are complex and numerous among school-age children. These gaps may result from a lack of consistent importance placed on reading. Studies show that children who come from homes where education is valued and reading is commonplace tend to score higher on standardized tests than children who come from homes where television is more prevalent.
Poor performance on standardized tests is not a result or inadequate test preparation but a lack of basic literacy skills. Many teachers simply lack the knowledge or practice of how to integrate literacy instruction in the content areas. Even if they are receptive to the idea of incorporating literacy-based-instruction into their daily lessons, they lack the training and resources needed to execute that instruction.
Closing the Achievement Gap
What MAX teachers do in the classroom has proven to significantly improve the achievement of students over time. Emphasis is placed on:
- College and career readiness
- Higher-order thinking
- Access to life-long learning skills
Helping teachers see the need for change, and helping them see that the change will actually improve their success as a teacher is our specialty. We model how teachers can easily put into effect what research shows works:
- Intrinsic motivation to learn
- Daily focus on how to learn
- Formative assessment and feedback
- High levels of engagement and interaction with others
- Higher-order thinking
Most importantly – students are more engaged in a MAX Teaching classroom!
Help for Students Reading Below Grade Level
Reading involves construction of meaning. Modern views of reading suggest that the reader uses the "set of tracks" left by the author, relating it to the reader's prior knowledge, to construct a message.
The good news is that students who are reading below grade level, and who do not at a given time have the skills to read a piece of text independently, can read text at a much higher level than their diagnosed reading grade level, given the support of competent peers and/or a facilitating teacher.
MAX Teaching staff development provides:
- Research based instructional strategies
- Co-operative learning model environment
- Skill acquisition model
- Extra scaffolds for the IEP student and low performing reader