Sanford Middle School

     Literacy is defined as listening, viewing, speaking, thinking, reading, writing, and expressing through multiple symbol systems.  Sanford Middle School encourages the mastery of these skills through Language Arts classes. In addition, literacy skills are reinforced in other subject areas through content area reading. Students learn how to comprehend and understand text specific to Science, Social Studies, Mathematics, and elective courses.  Furthermore, students are exposed to technical reading through their required technology courses.
     Seminole County Middle Schools has adopted two research-based reading programs to assist students who scored below proficiency in reading (Level 1 and Level 2) and at lower levels of proficiency in reading (Level 3) on the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT).  Both programs are designed to meet the individual instructional needs of all students who are enrolled in Reading classes.  The instructional strategies used by the reading teachers are based on best practices and will assist students with improving their overall reading skills and performance on FCAT. Additionally, students are given diagnostic assessments to determine strengths and weaknesses in reading.  Based on the areas identified as needing improvement, students are then enrolled in the reading class that will meet their individual needs. Students are not required to take an Intensive Reading class when they achieve high levels of proficiency as measured by the Reading portion of the FCAT.

Reading Placement
    Students who are below proficiency (Level 1 and Level 2) as measured by the FCAT are required to be in an Intensive Reading class. These students will be given additional assessments to determine the appropriate Intensive Reading class.  Additionally, students who score at lower levels of proficiency (Level 3) will be given additional assessments to determine the appropriate Intensive Reading class.

Reading Placement Procedures:
    The following process will be used for assessing students’ reading placement:
1.    Review of FCAT Reading scores.
2.    Fluency assessment to determine decoding ability.
3.    Non-fluent readers will be given the Corrective Reading Placement Test to determine appropriate Corrective Reading class.
4.    Moderately fluent or fluent students will be placed into the appropriate Reading Edge class.
5.    Periodic progress monitoring  assessments will be reviewed to determine growth in reading ability.
6.    Review of the progress monitoring  data may result in a change in the students’ reading classes.

The two Intensive Reading programs are:
•     Corrective Reading for students who can not read accurately and fluently.
•     Reading Edge for students who are fluent readers but need extra support in their ability to construct meaning from the text and to build their vocabulary.  

Reading Assessments:
•     Florida Oral Reading Fluency (FORF) assessment is used as a way to monitor students’ progress through out the year.
•     Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) The Lexile measure is used to indicate the difficulty of the text and indicate the students’ reading ability.

 When a student has demonstrated high levels of reading proficiency as measured by the FCAT SSS Reading test, the reading class is no longer needed.