NELMS STEPS

Engage your faculty in a professional development experience that will provide your students with common reading exposure in ALL of their classes. Teachers have a common language to discuss reading and all of us can truly become the reading teacher we are supposed to be!

Click here to see a short video introduction to the STEPS program.

What is STEPS to Reading Literacy?

• STEPS to Reading Literacy is a professional development resource specifically designed to support middle school teachers to help their students become stronger readers and learners. It provides teachers and schools with the understandings and readily accessible strategies that will help their students access texts with understanding and master reading requirements.

• STEPS to Reading Literacy enables students to become independent, self-directed learners by providing teachers with a selection of essentials skills and strategies that can be implemented and used across every content area including the unified arts. These strategies strengthen students' ability to retrieve information from texts, master necessary content, and meet challenging requirements of reading and writing assignments.

• Designed for school-wide implementation, STEPS to Reading Literacy provides support for teachers and administrators focused on improving student literacy and content learning. Its various courses are designed to meet the needs of teachers, literacy specialists and administrators as they lead and sustain a school-wide literacy initiative in their schools and districts.

Benefits for Teachers and Schools
• Provides a framework that allows teachers to integrate reading, and learning strategies with the teaching of essential information required in their content area
• Focuses on the important skills students need to access information in specific subject areas
• Enables teachers and whole schools to understand and implement a school-wide reading initiative

Benefits for Students
• Provides students with the skills and strategies they need to master the content in all of their courses
• Increases students' desire for and interest in reading
• Improves the quality of students' critical reading and thinking skills
• Strengthens students' capacity to improve their grades and test scores

STEPS to Reading Literacy Courses

Teacher Course (5 days: 3 days of instruction, 1 day for literacy leaders, 1 day mentoring)
• Focuses on the reading process and deepens teacher understanding on how to teach it to students
• Provides teachers with a comprehensive selection of literacy-related skills and strategies that will enhance student learning in the content areas including ways to assist struggling readers
• Models teaching techniques and actively engages teachers in their collaborative efforts to apply their new knowledge to their own classes

Reading Literacy Leader Course (5 days)
• Develops in-depth content and facilitations processes
• Trains participants in the leadership skills required to support school-wide implementation and individual teachers
• Models the processes and strategies to facilitate change
• Reviews content of teacher course in significant depth

visit STEPS site
(external link)

For more information, or to schedule a middle level course in your district,
contact the Professional Services Team at 978-887-6263 or email: pst@nelms.org

STEPS® to Reading Literacy

What is STEPS to Reading Literacy?

STEPS^® to Reading Literacy