Developed to assist teachers of communication arts in the high school PREP (Preparation for Raising Educational Performance) summer classes, the 30 75-minute lessons in this first of two handbooks are designed to help ninth graders operating with below grade level reading skills (around the 5th-7th grade level) improve their reading comprehension. The lessons, set within a sequence of instruction that recapitulates actual language development, cover listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and begin by exploring students' prior knowledge and experiences as a foundation for the new concepts to be learned. Writing is included as a daily activity. In addition to the lessons, the document contains a daily instructional design, an outline for a whole-class reading lesson, a description of "word banks" to be kept by each child, lists of reading materials, discussions of the language experience and the Fernald approaches, and suggestions for teachers on goals, directed reading activities, and homework review. (HOD)