# data[].attributes.body
This is my dog Moody, she is a husky/golden retriever mix.

# data[].attributes.body
Universal screeners: Given 1-3 times a year to screen for reading difficulties.

Diagnostic assessments: Identify a student's specific strengths and weaknesses in reading.

Progress monitoring: Measure a student's progress throughout intervention and instruction.

Summative: Evaluate a student's performance after the end of an instructional period.

# data[].attributes.headline
2021-22 Early Literacy Initial Assessment

# data[].attributes.subject
2021-22 Early Literacy Initial Assessment

# data[].attributes.body
A2i Online Assessment: Primarily focuses on reading foundations, language, comprehension standards. Kindergarten- Grade 3.

Acadience Reading: Kindergarten: Primarily measures reading foundations standards and partially measures language standards. Grade 1: Primarily measures reading foundations, comprehension standards 1-3, and partially measures language standards. Grade 2: Primarily measures reading foundations standards, the majority of comprehension, and language standards. Grade 3: Measures the comprehension standards 1-3.

# data[].attributes.body
Reliability: The extent to which assessments are accurate and consistent.

Validity: A valid assessment accurately measures what it is supposed to measure and predicts performance on similar assessments.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a fun book for children to learn about cause and effect.

# data[].attributes.headline
Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready For Kindergarten

# data[].attributes.subject
Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready For Kindergarten

# data[].attributes.body
This a good book to get children excited for kindergarten.

# data[].attributes.body
The Essential Elements use performance terms to describe the skills and knowledge expected from students, ensuring that learning targets are clear and measurable.

# data[].attributes.body
They encompass a wide range of learning experiences, allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in various ways.

# data[].attributes.body
The Essential Elements are assessed through dynamic learning maps, which help in measuring growth and performance for students with significant cognitive disabilities.

# data[].attributes.headline
Miss Bindergarten Stays home from Kindergarten

# data[].attributes.subject
Miss Bindergarten Stays home from Kindergarten

# data[].attributes.body
This is a good book for children to understand that sometimes teachers also get sick.

# data[].attributes.body
The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.

# data[].attributes.body
The relationship between letters and sounds, helping readers decode words.

# data[].attributes.body
The ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression.

# data[].attributes.body
The knowledge of words and their meanings, which is essential for comprehension.

# data[].attributes.body
The ability to understand and interpret what is read.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Five 'Keys' to Reading - Five from Five

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Reading and literacy are perhaps the most researched aspects of education. Thousands of studies of the teaching of reading, and how children learn to read, have been published in scientific and academic journals and there are many reviews of the research literature. An extensive body of research on reading instruction has concluded that there are [...]

# data[].attributes.body
I'm Anna and I'm studying early elementary education. I've worked in childcare for almost 4 years now and I love helping children learn. I want to be a third-grade teacher so that I can help all students feel understood and heard.

# data[].attributes.headline
the little mouse, the red ripe strawberry, and the big hungry bear

# data[].attributes.subject
the little mouse, the red ripe strawberry, and the big hungry bear

# data[].attributes.body
This book is a good book for children learning to read, there are pages that are just pictures to help them come up with ideas of what is happening in the story.

# data[].attributes.wish_content.attachment_props.alternative_text
the little mouse, the red ripe strawberry, and the big hungry bear

# data[].attributes.body
This is a good story for teaching children the alphabet in a phone way.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Teach Vocabulary in Grades K-2 | Vocabulary Activities for Kids

# data[].attributes.headline
Balanced and structured literacy: what's the difference?

# data[].attributes.subject
Balanced and structured literacy: what's the difference?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Balanced And Structured Literacy: What's The Difference?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Case study

UDL and Inclusion: How One School District Transformed Its Community

Through Universal Design for Learning and a model of inclusivity, the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation helps all students, including students with autism, succeed together. Read article and watch videos

The basics

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): What You Need to Know
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a way of thinking about teaching and learning that helps give all students an equal opportunity to succeed. This approach offers flexibility in the ways students access material, engage with it and show what they know. Developing lesson plans this way helps all kids, but it may be especially helpful for kids with learning and attention issues.

5 Examples of Universal Design for Learning in the Classroom
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching aimed at meeting the needs of every student in a classroom. It can be helpful for all kids, including kids with learning and attention issues. But UDL takes careful planning by teachers. Here are just a few examples of how UDL can work in a classroom.

Universal Design for Learning: Meeting the Needs of All Students
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides the opportunity for all students to access, participate in, and progress in the general-education curriculum by reducing barriers to instruction. Learn more about how UDL offers options for how information is presented, how students respond or demonstrate their knowledge and skills, and how students are engaged in learning.

Accessible Materials for Students with Print Disabilities
Many struggling and special needs students have a print disability. Teachers can meet these students' needs by translating the three principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into practice. Learn about the seven features of and how to select these materials for your school and classroom.

The UDL Guidelines

National Center on UDL Director David Rose walks us through the UDL Guidelines, a detailed framework of principles, guidelines, and checkpoints for creating curriculum that supports all learners. The UDL Guidelines were developed over the past decade with federal and private support. ( National Center on Universal Design for Learning )

UDL: Principles and Practice

National Center on UDL Director David Rose explains how UDL helps meet the most pressing issues facing educators today. Drawing on brain research and the latest learning sciences, Dr. Rose describes the three UDL principles and what they mean for classroom practice. ( National Center on Universal Design for Learning )

UDL in Action in the Classroom

Watch how Eric Crouch, a fifth-grade teacher and Understood Teacher Fellow, incorporates UDL into his daily classroom practice - from how he sets up his classroom to how he presents a lesson and engages all students. Then learn how you can get started with UDL in your classroom. ( Understood )

More resources on UDL

The Difference Between Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Traditional Education
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching that aims to give all students equal opportunities to succeed, no matter how they learn. While some teachers in traditional schools may use UDL principles and practices on their own, traditional and UDL approaches to education are very different. This chart highlights some of te differences ( Understood )

The UDL Guidelines
The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.( CAST )

Tips, Tricks and Tools to Build Your Inclusive Classroom Through UDL
UDL is not a special ed thing or even a general ed thing. It's just an ed thing. It is a way to connect every student to the learning experience, and a way at looking at learning that is fully inclusive and promotes success for all learners, regardless of ability. Let's dig deeper into the three principles and discuss some real world classroom applications to lead to a more inclusive learning experience for all students. (Ed Surge)

Universal Design for Learning: Creating a Learning Environment that Challenges and Engages All Students
This module examines the three principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and discusses how to apply these principles to the four curricular components (i.e., goals, instructional materials, instructional methods, and assessments) Estimated completion time: 2.5 hours. (IRIS Center/Vanderbilt University)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a way of thinking about teaching and learning that helps give all students an equal opportunity to succeed. This approach offers flexibility in the ways students access material, engage with it, and show what they know.

# data[].attributes.headline
Oral Language: The foundations of reading intervention

# data[].attributes.subject
Oral Language: The foundations of reading intervention

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Oral language: The foundations of reading and reading intervention

# data[].attributes.headline
How can storytelling be used to develop early literacy skills?

# data[].attributes.subject
How can storytelling be used to develop early literacy skills?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Can Storytelling Be Used To Develop Early Literacy Skills? - Childhood Education Zone

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Teach Phonemic Awareness in Kindergarten, 1st, & 2nd Grade | Phonemic Awareness Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Comprehension: The Goal of Reading

Comprehension, or extracting meaning from what you read, is the ultimate goal of reading. Experienced readers take this for granted and may not appreciate the reading comprehension skills required. The process of comprehension is both interactive and strategic. Rather than passively reading text, readers must analyze it, internalize it and make it their own.

In order to read with comprehension, developing readers must be able to read with some proficiency and then receive explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies (Tierney, 1982).

​ Strategies for reading comprehension in Read Naturally programs

​General Strategies for Reading Comprehension

The process of comprehending text begins before children can read, when someone reads a picture book to them. They listen to the words, see the pictures in the book, and may start to associate the words on the page with the words they are hearing and the ideas they represent.

In order to learn comprehension strategies, students need modeling, practice, and feedback. The key comprehension strategies are described below.

Using Prior Knowledge/Previewing

When students preview text, they tap into what they already know that will help them to understand the text they are about to read. This provides a framework for any new information they read.

Predicting

When students make predictions about the text they are about to read, it sets up expectations based on their prior knowledge about similar topics. As they read, they may mentally revise their prediction as they gain more information.

Identifying the Main Idea and Summarization

Identifying the main idea and summarizing requires that students determine what is important and then put it in their own words. Implicit in this process is trying to understand the author's purpose in writing the text.

Questioning

Asking and answering questions about text is another strategy that helps students focus on the meaning of text. Teachers can help by modeling both the process of asking good questions and strategies for finding the answers in the text.

Making Inferences

In order to make inferences about something that is not explicitly stated in the text, students must learn to draw on prior knowledge and recognize clues in the text itself.

Visualizing

Studies have shown that students who visualize while reading have better recall than those who do not (Pressley, 1977). Readers can take advantage of illustrations that are embedded in the text or create their own mental images or drawings when reading text without illustrations.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Narrative Text

Narrative text tells a story, either a true story or a fictional story. There are a number of strategies that will help students understand narrative text.

Story Maps

Teachers can have students diagram the story grammar of the text to raise their awareness of the elements the author uses to construct the story. Story grammar includes:

Setting: When and where the story takes place (which can change over the course of the story).

Characters: The people or animals in the story, including the protagonist (main character), whose motivations and actions drive the story.

Plot: The story line, which typically includes one or more problems or conflicts that the protagonist must address and ultimately resolve.

Theme: The overriding lesson or main idea that the author wants readers to glean from the story. It could be explicitly stated as in Aesop's Fables or inferred by the reader (more common).

​ Printable story map (blank)

Retelling

Asking students to retell a story in their own words forces them to analyze the content to determine what is important. Teachers can encourage students to go beyond literally recounting the story to drawing their own conclusions about it.

Prediction

Teachers can ask readers to make a prediction about a story based on the title and any other clues that are available, such as illustrations. Teachers can later ask students to find text that supports or contradicts their predictions.

Answering Comprehension Questions

Asking students different types of questions requires that they find the answers in different ways, for example, by finding literal answers in the text itself or by drawing on prior knowledge and then inferring answers based on clues in the text.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Expository Text

Expository text explains facts and concepts in order to inform, persuade, or explain.

The Structure of Expository Text

Expository text is typically structured with visual cues such as headings and subheadings that provide clear cues as to the structure of the information. The first sentence in a paragraph is also typically a topic sentence that clearly states what the paragraph is about.

Expository text also often uses one of five common text structures as an organizing principle:

Cause and effect

Problem and solution

Compare and contrast

Description

Time order (sequence of events, actions, or steps)

Teaching these structures can help students recognize relationships between ideas and the overall intent of the text.

Main Idea/Summarization

A summary briefly captures the main idea of the text and the key details that support the main idea. Students must understand the text in order to write a good summary that is more than a repetition of the text itself.

​K-W-L

There are three steps in the K-W-L process (Ogle, 1986):

1. What I Know: Before students read the text, ask them as a group to identify what they already know about the topic. Students write this list in the "K" column of their K-W-L forms.

2. What I Want to Know: Ask students to write questions about what they want to learn from reading the text in the "W" column of their K-W-L forms. For example, students may wonder if some of the "facts" offered in the "K" column are true.

3. What I Learned: As they read the text, students should look for answers to the questions listed in the "W" column and write their answers in the "L" column along with anything else they learn.

After all of the students have read the text, the teacher leads a discussion of the questions and answers.

Printable K-W-L chart (blank)

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers provide visual representations of the concepts in expository text. Representing ideas and relationships graphically can help students understand and remember them. Examples of graphic organizers are:
Tree diagrams that represent categories and hierarchies Tables that compare and contrast data Time-driven diagrams that represent the order of events Flowcharts that represent the steps of a process​
​

Teaching students how to develop and construct graphic organizers will require some modeling, guidance, and feedback. Teachers should demonstrate the process with examples first before students practice doing it on their own with teacher guidance and eventually work independently.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension in Read Naturally Programs

Several Read Naturally programs include strategies that support comprehension:

Read Naturally Intervention Program

Strategies for Reading Comprehension

Prediction Step

Retelling Step

Quiz / Comprehension Questions

Graphic Organizers

One Minute Reader Live:
A component of web-based Read Live for supplemental, independent reading that develops fluency with support for vocabulary and comprehension.

Take Aim at Vocabulary: A print-based program with audio CDs that teaches carefully selected target words and strategies for independently learning unknown words. Students work mostly independently or in teacher-led small groups of up to six students.

Main idea

Literal

Vocabulary

Inference

Vocabulary: Clarify target words

Vocabulary: Study word parts and review target words

Vocabulary: Apply the target words

Bibliography

Honig, B., L. Diamond, and L. Gutlohn. (2013). Teaching reading sourcebook, 2nd ed. Novato, CA: Arena Press.

Ogle, D. M. (1986). K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. The Reading Teacher 38(6), pp. 564-570.

Pressley, M. (1977). Imagery and children's learning: Putting the picture in developmental perspective. Review of Educational Research 47, pp. 586-622.

Tierney, R. J. (1982). Essential considerations for developing basic reading comprehension skills. School Psychology Review 11(3), pp. 299-305.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To improve comprehension, students must have some reading proficiency and receive explicit instruction in skills and strategies for reading comprehension.

# data[].attributes.headline
Before, During, and After Questions: Promoting Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking

# data[].attributes.subject
Before, During, and After Questions: Promoting Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Before, During and After Questions: Promoting Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking