Reading

All sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students at RTMS have the opportunity to participate in Reading courses if they are not scheduled to take a world language course.  All students taking a Reading course will focus on developing a more effective reading process - a skill that is directly related to success in school and in the job market.  Reading is a skill that continues to develop well into adulthood if it is nurtured and practiced.

In Reading classes, students will…

• …read a variety of novels as a class, in small groups, and individually.  Story structure, theme, tone, figurative language, sensory details, and   relationship to historical events are key elements which will be addressed through discussion, reflection, and presentations.
   

• …read non-fiction informational text that relates to topics being covered in other classes or to events occurring in the world today.   Recognizing text structure and features, messages, themes, author’s purpose, and how they can relate the information to their own life experience are key elements.
   

• …develop fluency for the purpose of improving the efficiency of reading. Activities such as reader’s theater, skits, plays, poetry recitation, recorded narrations, and silent reading are used to improve fluency.
   

• …expand vocabulary through etymology, specifically the study of Greek and  Latin root words and affixes.  Other strategies to determine meanings of unknown words are also practiced such as recognizing context clues, reflecting on prior knowledge, and using available reference materials.
   

• …use technology as a means to strengthen reading skills.  Online research,  PowerPoint and MovieMaker presentations using voice narration, online blogging, and creating documents in Microsoft Word are just a few ways  technology is used to enhance reading skills.  If interested,  visit the reading blog site at any time to see what has been discussed:   
  
   http://classblogmeister.com/ 
  (Browse for blogger:  State- Georgia;  Teachers- DiSano, Marisa or Peterson, Mary)
   

• …strive to use reading skills to solve real-life problems and meet real needs. For example, eighth grade students used reading skills to practice applying for and interviewing for a job at a local grocery store. 
  Also, this year all reading students read The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall, a book  whose theme is that we’ve all been given gifts in our lives that we can use to help others – gifts such as the gift of work, time, and friendship. 
  An activity that developed as a direct result of reading this book was the involvement of students, staff, and parents in the African Library Project,  an organization that works to create small libraries for   African schools and villages. The students, staff, and parents worked very hard to ship almost   8000 books to the children of Botswana, Africa, establishing 8 libraries in schools there!  Visit the African Library website to learn more and read the article written about our students and school!            
  www.africanlibraryproject.org