Saturday, September 18, 2010

Reading Program: Reading Boot Camp

Reading Program Overview


Reading Boot Camp is a free open source reading intervention program designed to turn around an entire school in just 20 days! Teaching every child in your school to read in twenty days is not only radical but saves thousands in program cost. Turning the reading establishment on its head and saving a lost generation is a radical idea. Spending education budgets on great literature for students, instead of reading software, basal readers, reading
intervention programs, and teacher in-service training is a radical idea. Insuring that all students have a real future is just a pipe dream if we stay on this path of chasing reading rainbows. Teaching ten years in high-poverty schools, with over 85% of the students at risk, has taught me we have lost our way and the establishment is broken. We buy into every program that comes down the pike promising success, yet here we are failing our most
needy students. Putting great literature, poetry, and books in children’s 
hands is the foundation of Reading Boot Camp, not predigested workbooks, endless teacher-made photo copies, and needless busy work.  Reading Boot Camp is back to basics with a sledge hammer to the outsider. Students find it rewarding and fantastic!


Reading Boot Camp Purpose 


Purposes 1) Launch students into the rigorous and intensive
reading and writing program that is taught throughout the year:
 2) Accelerate the closure of the academic achievement
 gap in lowest quartile students; and 3) Teach the students
 school etiquette, classroom manners, discipline, responsibility
 and a foundations in classic children’s literature...



TEACHING STUDENTS TO NEVER GIVE UP!



Students make explosive reading growth!


Reading Boot Camp Results 9/10
37% started the year reading at grade level now 
74% are reading at grade level in 25 days!


Reading Boot Camp Results 9/09

Jumping 40% points in Reading in 20 Days!
27% on Day ONE, 73% on Day Twenty!


Reading Program Effectiveness: 20 Days!
Eight students are now at grade level! 85% of students made more that one 
year growth in reading. The mean for students not participating in Reading 
Boot Camp is 194.3 RIT for 4th grade, students participating in Reading
Boot Camp the mean is 205.4.


Four classrooms are participating at our school and all show statistically 
significant gains in reading fluency and comprehension!


The 20 Day Intervention Is Fast, Rigorous, Enriching, and Fun.


Reading Boot Camp Quick Look


Learning Goals for Fluency, Reading Comprehension and Academic Vocabulary Knowledge!

20 full days are need to meet all literacy goals!

Phase One: Phonics, Phonemic Awareness and Fluency
Grade Level Fluency Goals
1st Grade 80 Words Correct Per Minute
2nd 140, 3rd 160, 4th 180, 5th 195, 6th 205, 7th 210, 8th 215 wcpm


Phase Two: Reading Vocabulary and Academic Vocabulary

Students Will!
1st grade Review, Preview, and Learn 400 words!
Academic Words Review, Preview, and Learn!
35 reading, 25 math, 25 language arts, and 25 science words

2nd grade Review, Preview, and Learn 800 words!
Academic Words Review, Preview, and Learn!
35 reading, 25 math, 25 language arts, and 25 science words


3rd grade Review, Preview, and Learn 800 words!
Academic Words Review, Preview, and Learn!
35 reading, 25 math, 25 language arts, and 25 science words

4th grade Review, Preview, and Learn 800 words!
Academic Words Review, Preview, and Learn!
35 reading, 25 math, 25 language arts, and 25 science words

5th grade Review, Preview, and Learn 800 words!
Academic Words Review, Preview, and Learn!
35 reading, 25 math, 25 language arts, and 25 science words

5th grade Review, Preview, and Learn 800 words!
Academic Words Review, Preview, and Learn!
35 reading, 25 math, 25 language arts, and 25 science words

Phase Three: Reading Comprehension
Sample Academic Reading Words 4th Grade Reading
alliteration, assumption, characteristics, chronological, conflict, debate, exaggeration, expositionfalling action, flashback, headline, instruction, irony, literary device, literary element, memo memorandum, narrator, parable, persuasive, primary source, pun, quote, reference, research paper, scene, secondary source, speech, tale, thesis paper, word play

Activities List
Phonemic Awareness and Fluency Activities : 8 times per day Music and Lyrics, 4-8 times per day Fluency Drills, 2-4 times per day Vocabulary Word List Drills, and 2 times per day Poetry and Rhymes. Look for students that avoid singing songs will make little gains without more intervention!All Activities are peer to peer!

Reading Vocabulary and Academic Vocabulary Activities: 4 times per day Vocabulary Sparkle, 4 time per day Vocabulary Board Games, 4-8 times per day vocabulary activities (COP CARS), 2-4 times per day Vocabulary Word List Drills, Vocabulary Pig Game, and student developed vocabulary activities! All Activities are peer to peer!


Reading Comprehension Activities: 2 times per day Reading and Rereading Chapter Books, 2 times per day Story Maps and Journaling, Comprehension Sparkle, 2 times per week Endurance Reading, 2 times per day only starting on the 4th week Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension Test. All Activities are peer to peer! The Students and teacher all read the same books!  

YES! STUDENTS SPEND 20 FULL DAYS BUILDING LITERACY! 

Vocabulary Flash Cards
Open Source Speller 
Open Source Reader
Poetry Reading
Buddy Reading
Music and Lyrics
Chapter Books
Whiteboard E-books and Librivox Audio Books
Fluency Drills
Comprehension Building Games
American Juku
Alphabetics
Recitation
Peer Tutoring
Fireside Book Club
Reading Master By Grade Competition
Reading Journals





Math Vocabulary Game Cards 
Vocabulary Game Cards1st 
Vocabulary Game Cards 2nd 
Vocabulary Game Cards 3rd
Vocabulary Game Cards 4th
Vocabulary Game Cards 5th 



Remedial reading programs must meet the needs of a diverse student population. Finding great methods to use with at-risk students is difficult at times.The best single resource that I have found is a reading handbook published by Australian Educators. The book is free online and has given me many great ideas to help learning disabled students. Reading Handbook!

Many teachers and administrators have asked me these questions lately. Why is Reading Book Camp (so, unbelievably, phenomenally ) successful? How do you take a class that is reading at the 20th or 30th percentile and move them to the 70th or 80th percentile in 20 days? My answers!

The Reason Reading Boot Camp Is Successful!

1. Language and reading is a function of auditory learning, students learn 6 times faster when listening, reading orally, and speaking.  Language and vocabulary are mastered with repetition and modeling. When a reading teacher relies too heavily on silent reading and silent writing activities, the speed of auditory learning is lost. By finding creative and effective ways to provide more listening, oral reading, and speaking activities during Reading Boot Camp, you can give all learners in your reading class an accelerated chance to develop their literacy skills. During Reading Boot Camp the students are ether reading text or listening to text being modeled the entire day. The repetition of seeing, hearing, and speaking daily builds pathways exponentially the further you get into the program the greater the automaticity. By day twenty, the brain pathways are automatic, automaticity has been achieved, the 2350 most used words are ready to use.

2. Reading Boot Camp is just that, camp, with camp counselors (teacher) providing highly focused fast, rigorous, challenging, fun listening, reading, and speaking activities all day long.

3. Students as teachers, using cooperative partners for 90% of the activities builds accountability for the teams, partners, and personal learning. Students are trained to work as teachers with the ability to run all Reading Boot Camp activities with little assistance from the teacher. Students know all expected learning outcomes and work to meet individual goals and team goals.  Students as teachers multiplies the effectiveness of on task behavior and helps student monitor individual progress and partners progress (Force Multiplier).

4. The 2350 most used English words including the Dolch sight words are modeled, read, written, or spoken 30-60 times per day during Reading Boot Camp. Students are also exposed to 10,000-20,000 new vocabulary words during the reading of a vast collection of literature that includes poems, plays, fairy tales, parables, fables, short stories and chapter books. Students build auditory English language skills with, idioms, cognates, definitions, and important examples of key phrases used in English.


MOTIVATING AND INSPIRING STUDENTS!

80-90% of Reading Boot Camp activities use partners.
80-90% of Reading Boot Camp activities are done to maximize auditory learning.
100% of Reading Boot Camp activities are literacy based.
80-90% of Reading Boot Camp activities are 5-15 minutes in length.

Please let me know if you would like to participate in 
Reading Boot Camp Training!
Sean Taylor M. Ed





Students growth 300% over expected in reading, (NWEA MAP), Boot Camp ran longer than normal, twenty five days because I had more students on IEPs and English Language Learners than last year and the behavior was far from ready for instruction. The class  is now 74% at or above the mean in reading in all domains, and 87% of students are
reading at grade level in the domain of reading comprehension (NWEA MAP)! 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Teachers/Parents,
Reading Boot camp is what everyone should! What we do is we sing songs like
Across the Universe by The Beatles. Make flash cards from our Kung – Fu list(By the way, That’s a list of academic words), Sit with a buddy and study our National Reading Vocabulary and make kid-friendly sentences. We also practice our fluency with our Eclectic Speller. We do all of these to help us with reading, comphension, and fluency!
Right now, We’re reading a chapter book called, Seer of Shadows.
It’s about a boy named, Horace, who is a photographer and finds a frightful likeness:
The image of the Von Macht’s dead daughter, Eleanora! The book is at a seven-fifty
Lexile! 750! We’ve also read the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Because of Winn-Dixie, and The Story of Doctor Dolittle. It’s helps us with expression and fluency.
Oh, I forgot to you the songs we sing. Across the Universe By The Beatles.
What the World Needs Now by Jackie Shannon and Kung-Fu Fighting! All of these
Songs we sing help us with speed and articulation.
Something else I forgot. The fun things we do!
Vocabulary Sparkle! Wait, you don’t know how to play Vocabulary Sparkle, do you?
Then, I’ll tell you! All of us stand and try to guess the definition of the word Mr. Taylor gets from the Kung-Fu list. We also get rewards if we do Super Great! We
Could get candy or play board games! Last Friday, Mr. Taylor made Mexican pizzas as a reward for the whole class.
And when we’re practicing our fluency, We sit in cop cars.
You know how cops talk to each other like one is facing north or east and the other south or west? Yup! That’s how we sit! Mr. Taylor calls it “buddy buzz” at times. The reason why
We sit in cop cars is to listen to the reader better and see the text better.
What about American Juku? Wait, What is it? It’s just a multiple – choice test. In Japan, It’s cram school. And by that I mean, Juku means cram. It’s helps us with reading comphension. We do it because it’s multiple – choice test prep.
So you see why we do Reading Boot camp? If we do Reading Boot camp, Then the whole grade should too! No, The whole school. The whole district!
So please , PLEASE do it!!
Sincerely,
Sabrina
Age, 9

Teresa said...

Thank you Dr.(oops)Master Taylor for being so generous in sharing all your materials. It has been so exciting for me to witness how your students have helped work with my students in assisting them in becoming engaged in practicing their fluency drills. I have shared with other colleagues at Rio Vista how empowering this is for the students. The students know exactly what their goals are in regards to fluency rate and lexiles that they should be reading at! The students have been much more interested in using and learning the National Vocabulary Word lists found at http://www.readingkey.com/ because they know these are the words that will help them achieve their grade level reading fluency and comprehension. This year has gotten off to an exciting start for me in that I have applied some of the components of Reading Boot Camp that my teaching time permits for my multiple grade levels. I'm glad that we have been able to initiate our monthly "Vocabulary Masters" quizzes for our grades 2-5 as an extra motivational tool for our students to help them improve on their reading and academic vocabulary.

I feel there are some very effective and valuable components to Mr. Taylor's Reading Boot Camp that reading interventionists as myself can consistently incorporate within the time I have to work with small groups of 3rd to 5th graders. As I am working with English Language Learners, and lower quartile students, I will be monitoring closely the progress my students make and sharing this information with other district colleagues in similar positions as myself.