• Overview
• Goals
  Absorption & Identification

  Age Appropriate Skills

  Parent Education & Support
• Curriculum & Instruction
  Curriculum Design

  Class

  Home Practice
• Program Level Details & Student Testimonials
  Level R

  Level 1

  Level 2

  Level 3

  Level 4

  Level 5

  Level 6

  Level 7

  Class Sizes and Lengths

Level 5: Reading and Study Skills

The Level 5 program is designed for middle school students (entering sixth, seventh and eighth graders). Most readers at this age have achieved fluency in chapter books and are ready for absorbed reading in great works of juvenile literature. Students in middle school also need skills to meet the challenges of literature and more difficult non-fiction, such as textbooks and journal articles. Class meets once per week for five weeks, and each class is 2 hours, 30 minutes long.

Program Goals

1. Increase students' reading speed, comprehension, and enjoyment in fiction.
2. Teach students to effectively read, study, and take notes in textbooks and other nonfiction.
3. Build students' vocabulary and dictionary skills.

Activities

Students are taught a variety of skills and techniques to help them read more efficiently and enjoy reading more. Teachers model each skill, coach student practice one-on-one, and provide students with guidance on applying these skills to a variety of reading material. Students learn techniques that enable most to double their reading speed over the course of the program. Teachers provide direct instruction in dictionary and vocabulary skills that students need to be successful in their current and future reading.

Half of every class session is spent reading and discussing a classic work of juvenile literature, Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman. Students continue reading this book for homework and complete it in the final week of class. Teachers lead lively discussions about the book, focusing on story elements such as plot, setting, characters, and personal meaning. Through discussion, teachers model the process of reading with absorption and identifying with characters and challenge students to grapple with deeper levels of meaning. In order to further support their comprehension and absorption, students watch an instructional DVD in conjunction with their at-home reading

Students are also taught strategies for reading, studying and taking notes in nonfiction, including textbooks and journal articles. Students are trained to extract main ideas and identify supporting details, and to structure their comprehension by teaching them to recognize how information is organized. Mastering these skills gives students the confidence to successfully tackle challenging reading material that is otherwise overwhelming to many middle school students.

Level 5 students come to class on the first day with a great deal of energy and intellectual curiosity. They need guidance to productively hone this energy, and some are initially hesitant to participate due to self-consciousness and lack of confidence. Our teachers meet this hesitancy with high expectations and the confidence that every student can be successful; teachers create an atmosphere of excitement and hard work.

Finally, both students and parents are provided with strategies to ensure that the skills practiced in class become habits. Teachers provide all students with an individualized Book Level Recommendation which corresponds with The Great Adventure Booklist that all students receive. The booklist represents the best titles in classic and near-classic young adult literature organized by level of difficulty and genre of interest, such as Adventure, Realism, Historical Fiction, and Fantasy.

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Level 5 was very fun because I think for many, if not all, of the students in the class it was their first experience talking about a book in a meaningful way. I enjoyed engaging with the students and challenging them to think more about what they had read.

— Nikolai, Institute instructor in San Francisco & PhD Candidate in American Politics