Secondary Literacy

Our school believes in preparing every student for lifelong success.  It is our goal to provide students with the support and instruction necessary for them to master grade level reading and comprehension skills.  Our literacy program supports our students by providing enhanced instruction and coaching in reading, writing and speaking across the curriculum, along with a variety of targeted reading intervention classes. 

Students have the opportunity to enroll in literacy classes that will help them advance their reading levels as they develop decoding, fluency, and comprehension skills. Students interested in taking the literacy classes may self-select for enrollment.  Students are also identified for placement in these classes by state testing and/or other reading assessment tools, teacher recommendation, and class performance.  Further assessments are conducted by the instructional coordinator or reading specialist to confirm placement, and individual student progress is monitored regularly.

Secondary Literacy Program Overview

This is a Power Point presentation that includes a description of the program, including information regarding screening, placement and curriculum.

Staff

Susan Payne, Instructional Coordinator
Tracy Coyle
Kerrie Claggett                                                                                                                          
Diane Evans                                                                                                                             

Courses

We currently offer three distinct courses to meet the diverse needs of our students who would benefit from additional support in reading:

Comprehensive Literacy (Level D)

This is the most intensive literacy intervention that we offer, and the curriculum used in this course is called Language!.  This class incorporates high interest reading materials and is designed to teach language skills essential for building literacy, including decoding, fluency and comprehension.  Students also learn skills to improve organization and overall academic performance in all of their classes.  This class meets every day during the school year, and students earn elective credit.

Academic Literacy (Levels 1 & 2)

This literacy intervention is designed to meet the needs of students whose reading achievement is below the proficient level. The curriculum used in this course is Read 180, a program that directly addresses individual needs through adaptive and instructional software, high-interest literature, and direct instruction in reading and writing skills. This course focuses on teaching students strategies to better comprehend and retain information they are reading in their regular content classes.  It is designed to help students become higher-level, strategic readers by improving their reading comprehension and fluency.  This class meets every day during the school year, and students earn elective credit.

Literacy Lab

This intervention was designed specifically for students who have not yet met the benchmark on OAKS in order to demonstrate proficiency in the Essential Skill of reading, which is now required to earn a regular Oregon high school diploma (starting with the class of 2012). Students learn test-taking strategies, and instruction is focused on the six strands of the OAKS assessment: Vocabulary, Read to Perform a Task, Demonstrate General Understanding, Develop an Interpretation, Analyzing Informational Text, and Analyzing Literary Text. Students will have the opportunity to re-take the state test, as well as to complete multiple reading work samples (an alternative means of demonstrating proficiency for graduation). This class meets every other day during second semester and students earn elective credit.  Students may exit this intervention and take a release once they have passed OAKS or completed two reading work samples that meet the standard as scored on the Oregon Department of Education Official Reading Scoring Guide.

If you have any questions about the TuHS Secondary Literacy Program, please contact the program coordinator, Susan Payne at (503)431-5627 or spayne@ttsd.k12.or.us.