The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of reading specialists and to introduce the reading programs implemented in the Innovative Schools at Si-Heung City. In the innovative Schools, the reform efforts in reading were oriented more to t...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of reading specialists and to introduce the reading programs implemented in the Innovative Schools at Si-Heung City. In the innovative Schools, the reform efforts in reading were oriented more to the professional development model rather than to the prescribed curriculum model. So it was encouraged for teachers to be committed to the reading education and to collaborate in planning and implementing programs with reading specialist. The role of reading specialists in the innovative schools was represented in their tasks as follows: needs assessment of reading education, fostering and motivating of the school reading culture, content area literacy instruction, differentiated reading instruction,developing and implementing the special programs for diverse educational objectives,supporting the professional development of teachers, literacy program for parents,evaluating the implemented programs. But the details of the tasks of reading specialists were varied by the school``s level, the school``s culture, the principal``s leadership and the reading specialist``s capacity. For reform efforts in school-wide reading education to be succeed, the individual capacity of reading specialist is not sufficient. The leadership and the collaboration of teachers and the institutional support system are necessarily needed.