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Make sure you register for ALL 8 sessions!

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Each session is worth 2 hours of PD. Make sure you register in APLD for each session to get your credits. Search: Speech to Print Book Study 2024.

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Karen Ten Napel

K-5 Literacy and Dyslexia Specialist

Arizona Department of Education

Karen.TenNapel@azed.gov

Holly Herriges

K-5 Literacy and Dyslexia Specialist

Arizona Department of Education

Holly.Herriges@azed.gov

Thank you for joining us for this book study. We're excited to collaborate with you all!

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Introduction to the text and 8-week book study format

Padlet

Golden Lines/Breakout Rooms

Discussion Question/Breakout Rooms

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Share with your coworkers!

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Speech to Print Fall 24 Book Study Flyer

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Each session is worth 2 hours of PD. Make sure you register in APLD for each session to get your credits. Search: Speech to Print Book Study 2024.

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Make sure you register for ALL 8 sessions!

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Each session is worth 2 hours of PD. Make sure you register in APLD for each session to get your credits. Search: Speech to Print Book Study 2024.

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Make sure you register for ALL 8 sessions!

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Each session is worth 2 hours of PD. Make sure you register in APLD for each session to get your credits. Search: Speech to Print Book Study 2024.

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Make sure you register for ALL 8 sessions!

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Each session is worth 2 hours of PD. Make sure you register in APLD for each session to get your credits. Search: Speech to Print Book Study 2024.

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Make sure you register for ALL 8 sessions!

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Each session is worth 2 hours of PD. Make sure you register in APLD for each session to get your credits. Search: Speech to Print Book Study 2024.

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Golden lines are an opportunity for each reader to share their learning from the text. It allows readers to collaborate and share their own learning and knowledge.

A golden line can be a line from the text that:

•raises questions for you

•confirms what you already believe

•makes you say aha

•conflicts with your beliefs

•causes you to reconsider prior assumptions

So come ready with a golden line from the chapter each week! Feel free to add to the padlet throughout the week before the session and make sure to include page numbers so your colleagues can find them.

# data[].attributes.headline
Make sure you register for ALL 8 sessions!

# data[].attributes.subject
Make sure you register for ALL 8 sessions!

# data[].attributes.body
Each session is worth 2 hours of PD. Make sure you register in APLD for each session to get your credits. Search: Speech to Print Book Study 2024.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you are a new user, you should start by creating your account.

# data[].attributes.headline
Make sure you register for ALL 8 sessions!

# data[].attributes.subject
Make sure you register for ALL 8 sessions!

# data[].attributes.body
Each session is worth 2 hours of PD. Make sure you register in APLD for each session to get your credits. Search: Speech to Print Book Study 2024.

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If you are a new user, you should start by creating your account.

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Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition

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Golden lines are an opportunity for each reader to share their learning from the text. It allows readers to collaborate and share their own learning and knowledge.

A golden line can be a line from the text that:

•raises questions for you

•confirms what you already believe

•makes you say aha

•conflicts with your beliefs

•causes you to reconsider prior assumptions

So come ready with a golden line from the chapter each week! Feel free to add to the padlet throughout the week before the session and make sure to include page numbers so your colleagues can find them.

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Dr. Moats website: https://louisamoats.com/

Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science: Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science (aft.org)

The Importance of the Alphabetic Principle: https://www.readingrockets.org/people-and-organizations/louisa-moats

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AUTHOR * LITERACY EXPERT * CONSULTANT

LOUISA MOATS

Dr. Louisa Moats, Ed.D. is a nationally recognized authority on how children learn to read and why some fail to learn. Widely acclaimed as a researcher, speaker, consultant, and trainer, Moats developed the landmark professional development program LETRS for teachers and reading specialists and the scientifically based LANGUAGE! Live Reading Intervention for grades 5 - 12.

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AUTHOR LITERACY EXPERT CONSULTANT Louisa Moats, Ed.D. Dr. Louisa Moats is a nationally recognized authority on how children learn to read and why some fail to learn. Widely acclaimed as a researcher, speaker, consultant, and trainer, Moats developed the landmark professional development program LETRS for teachers and reading specialists and the scientifically based LANGUAGE!

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Golden lines are an opportunity for each reader to share their learning from the text. It allows readers to collaborate and share their own learning and knowledge.

A golden line can be a line from the text that:

•raises questions for you

•confirms what you already believe

•makes you say aha

•conflicts with your beliefs

•causes you to reconsider prior assumptions

So come ready with a golden line from the chapter each week! Feel free to add to the padlet throughout the week before the session and make sure to include page numbers so your colleagues can find them.

# data[].attributes.body
Golden lines are an opportunity for each reader to share their learning from the text. It allows readers to collaborate and share their own learning and knowledge.

A golden line can be a line from the text that:

•raises questions for you

•confirms what you already believe

•makes you say aha

•conflicts with your beliefs

•causes you to reconsider prior assumptions

So come ready with a golden line from the chapter each week! Feel free to add to the padlet throughout the week before the session and make sure to include page numbers so your colleagues can find them.

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What is the Science of Reading?

The Science of Reading is a vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing. This research has been conducted over the last five decades across the world, and it is derived from thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages. (The Reading League)

The Science of Reading is built on two fundamental truths:

1. We were never born to read. Our brains are hardwired for speech, not print.

2. The alphabetic principle is the foundation of our alphabetic writing system. It is fundamentally different from pictograph and logograph systems.

What the Science of Reading is not:

an ideology or philosophy

a fad, trend, new idea, or pendulum swing

a political agenda

a one-size-fits-all approach

a program of instruction

a single, specific component of instruction, such as phonics

Click here for The Science of Reading: Defining Guide from The Reading League!
Download the Science of Reading infographic here.
Watch a 3-minute "elevator speech" about the Science of Reading, as explained by Dr. Stephanie Stollar.

Want to learn more?

Take one of our courses to learn more about the science of reading, especially the Evidence-Based Decision Making Course, which directly aligns and supports learning in the science of reading and the shifts to structured literacy.
Literacy Professional Learning
AZ State Literacy Instruction Plans

We are so happy you are here to learn more about the Science of Reading!
We would love to hear your feedback on this page so that we know what you need and how we can support you in your understanding of how the brain learns to read.

Please take a moment to complete a simple survey by clicking the Feedback button.

**The views and opinions expressed in any third-party resource do not necessarily reflect those of the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) and do not imply an endorsement by ADE.

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What is the Science of Reading? AS_ELA_Science-of-Reading-Logo-2023.png_(20230421) The Science of Reading is a vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing. This research has been conducted over the last five decades across the world, and it is derived from thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages.

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ELA Office Hours - Join the ADE ELA Team and literacy leaders from around the state in an opportunity to collaborate, share and learn about reading and literacy information.

Anchor Standards, Introduction, Glossary

Vertical Articulation of the K-12 ELA Standards

Vertical Articulation of the K-12 ELA Standards - The Vertical Articulation document shows the progression of each standard over the course of the K-12 continuum. It is important to have an understanding of how a skill/standard develops over time.

English Language Arts Crosswalks

The ELA and Social Studies Crosswalks show the purposeful connections between the Social Studies standards, the ELP (English Language Proficiency) standards, and the ELA (English Language Arts) standards.

Please contact Lauren Spenceley for an accessible version of the Social Studies Crosswalks.

ELA and Assessment

Arizona Assessments - AASA (Arizona's Academic Standards Assessment) is the statewide achievement test for Arizona students in Grades 3-8. All Arizona public school students in Grades 3 - 8 will take the grade level AASA assessments in English Language Arts and Mathematics. Grades 9 and Grade 11 students will take the ACT Aspire assessment. Cohort 2023 (typically grade 11) students will take the ACT assessment.

- AZELLA (Arizona's English Language Learner Assessment) is a Standards-Based Assessment that measures a student's English language proficiency based on the Arizona English Language Proficiency Standards.

NAEP - NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) is a national assessment of academic content outlined in the NAEP Academic Frameworks. The assessments are given to a sample of students in Grades 4, 8, and 12.

** ELA and Assessment - Would you like to learn more about the new Arizona assessments? Visit Assessment for lots of helpful information and resources, including their Friday Focus Webinars!

ELA Professional Learning
Literacy Professional Learning
For questions regarding registration, certificates, accessing courses, etc. please refer to our APLD Participant Guide: APLD FAQ Page

ELA Resources
ELA Resources
Summary of Changes for the Arizona English Language Arts Standards (Adopted December 2016)
The ADE ELA Team:
**The views and opinions expressed in any third-party resource do not necessarily reflect those of the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) and do not imply an endorsement by ADE.

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Arizona English Language Arts Standards Updates icon.png ELA Updates PD icon.png ELA Professional Development Email icon.png Sign up for ADE ELA Updates ELA Office Hours - Join the ADE ELA Team and literacy leaders from around the state in an opportunity to collaborate, share and learn about reading and literacy information.Anchor Standards, Introduction, GlossaryIntroduction PDF | Word Standards Glossary PDF | Word Anchor Standards PDF | Word Grades K-5K-5 STANDARDSK-5 STANDARDS PLACEMATSKindergarten (Revised 7/17) PDF | WordKindergarten (Revised 7/17) PDF | WordFirst Gr

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AZ K-12 ELA Vertical Articulation Standards

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AZ K-12 ELA Vertical Articulation Standards

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The views and opinions expressed in any third-party resource do not necessarily reflect those of the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) and do not imply an endorsement by ADE.

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Golden lines are an opportunity for each reader to share their learning from the text. It allows readers to collaborate and share their own learning and knowledge.

A golden line can be a line from the text that:

•raises questions for you

•confirms what you already believe

•makes you say aha

•conflicts with your beliefs

•causes you to reconsider prior assumptions

So come ready with a golden line from the chapter each week! Feel free to add to the padlet throughout the week before the session and make sure to include page numbers so your colleagues can find them.

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Click a note on the right, chose a color and start typing your response!

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Click a note on the right, chose a color and start typing your response!

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In order to become aware of the sounds in words we are going to play a game where we will use counters on a mat to separate sounds, then put them back together again.

This is a Say-It-and-Move-It mat. Do you see this circle at the top of the page? This is "home base" where we keep all the counters when we are not using them.

This arrow is important. The counters are moved from home base to rest on the line. The arrow goes from left to right reminding us to put the sounds back together to say the word.

I'll use the word "mom." The first sound is /m/. The next sound is /o/. The last sound is /m/. Then I say them all together (slide finger): /m/ /o/ /m/, mom.

Now let's try the word "miss" together: /m/ (move counter), /i/ (move counter), /s/ (move counter). We'll slide our finger along the arrow while saying the sounds.

If Correct: Great.

Now it's your turn. The next word is "red."

If Correct: Good work. Let's try some more.

If Incorrect: What's the first sound in the word "red" (move counter)? The middle sound? The last sound? Now say them together (slide finger).

Show me all the sounds in ...
Put it together.

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In order to become aware of the sounds in words we are going to play a game where we will use counters on a mat to separate sounds, then put them back together again. This is a Say-It-and-Move-It mat. Do you see this circle at the top of the page?

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Click a note on the right, chose a color and start typing your response!

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Click a note on the right, chose a color and start typing your response!

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Learn the six types of syllables found in English orthography, why it’s important to teach syllables, and the sequence in which students learn about both spoken and written syllables.

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Kindergarten and First Grade Student Center Activities Phonological Awareness | Phonics | Fluency | Vocabulary | Comprehension

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Golden lines are an opportunity for each reader to share their learning from the text. It allows readers to collaborate and share their own learning and knowledge.

A golden line can be a line from the text that:

•raises questions for you

•confirms what you already believe

•makes you say aha

•conflicts with your beliefs

•causes you to reconsider prior assumptions

So come ready with a golden line from the chapter each week! Feel free to add to the padlet throughout the week before the session and make sure to include page numbers so your colleagues can find them.

# data[].attributes.body
Golden lines are an opportunity for each reader to share their learning from the text. It allows readers to collaborate and share their own learning and knowledge.

A golden line can be a line from the text that:

•raises questions for you

•confirms what you already believe

•makes you say aha

•conflicts with your beliefs

•causes you to reconsider prior assumptions

So come ready with a golden line from the chapter each week! Feel free to add to the padlet throughout the week before the session and make sure to include page numbers so your colleagues can find them.

# data[].attributes.body
Golden lines are an opportunity for each reader to share their learning from the text. It allows readers to collaborate and share their own learning and knowledge.

A golden line can be a line from the text that:

•raises questions for you

•confirms what you already believe

•makes you say aha

•conflicts with your beliefs

•causes you to reconsider prior assumptions

So come ready with a golden line from the chapter each week! Feel free to add to the padlet throughout the week before the session and make sure to include page numbers so your colleagues can find them.

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Syntactic Awareness: Teaching Sentence Structure (Part 1) - Keys to Literacy

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The ability to understand at the sentence level is in many ways the foundation for being able to comprehend text. The ways in which authors express their ideas through sentences greatly affects a reader's ability to access and identify those ideas.

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Click a note on the right, chose a color and start typing your response!

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Click a note on the right, chose a color and start typing your response!

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6 Syllable Types: Everything to Know & Examples

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All you need to know about the 6 syllable types in the English language: closed, open, magic e, vowel team, r-controlled, and consonant+le!

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Click a note on the right, chose a color and start typing your response!

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Greenwood, S.C., & Flanigan, K. (2007, November). Overlapping Vocabulary and Comprehension: Context Clues Complement Semantic Gradients. The Reading Teacher, 61(3), 249-254.

Stahl, S.A., & Nagy, W.E. (2006). Teaching word meanings. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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Semantic gradients are a way to broaden and deepen students' understanding of related words. Students consider a continuum of words by order of degree. Semantic gradients often begin with antonyms, or opposites, at each end of the continuum. This strategy helps students distinguish between shades of meaning.

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For many children, reading can be a challenging experience, but with a few tips and tools and support from the community, parents and caregivers, reading can become much easier.

A really effective tool is Scarborough's Reading Rope. There are two key segments of the rope to recognize: Word recognition and language comprehension. By building on these two strands, we can create a rope to bridge the gap between reading well and struggling to read.

Keep watching to learn more about Scarborough's Reading Rope and all the ways you can help children build and strengthen their early literacy skills.

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For many children, reading can be a challenging experience, but with a few tips and tools and support from the community, parents and caregivers, reading can become much easier. A really effective tool is Scarborough's Reading Rope. There are two key segments of the rope to recognize: Word recognition and language comprehension.

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What Should Morphology Instruction Look Like?

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What Should Morphology Instruction Look Like?

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Teacher question:
Are there any resources that provide a list of morphemes to teach at each K-5 grade level? I have been looking for a definitive list of morphemes that is organized by grade level like the Fry sight word list. I often come across research about how L1 and L2 students acquire morphemes, but I am looking for a list that represents the morphemes that students will most likely see in print at each K-5 grade level. Does anything like that exist? Thank you for your time.
Shanahan's response:

The short answer to this question is, "No, I don't know of such a list."

But when have I ever been satisfied with the short answer to anything?

Let's make sure we're all in agreement as to what constitutes a morpheme? Basically, a morpheme is the "smallest grammatical unit." It isn't the same thing as a word, and yet many words are morphemes. The distinction turns on whether the unit (the morpheme or word) can stand on its own. Words have to have that kind of independence, while morphemes don't require it.

Thus, bags, trucked, running, and redirect are all words in the English language while bag, s, truck, ed, run, ing, re, and direct are all morphemes. Each morphemic unit carries meaning, but sometimes morphemes can do that independently (bag, truck, run, direct), and sometimes they need to be combined with other morphemes to be considered a word (s, ed, ing, re).

I admitted ignorance on this issue, and I've tried to turn that ignorance to your advantage. I contacted Jeffrey and Peter Bowers. Both are outstanding scholars (Jeff at the University of Bristol in the UK, and Peter at WordWorks Literacy Centre, in Ontario) who are particularly knowledgeable about teaching morphology to improve literacy. They've both published widely on the issue, and both have chided me when they felt I wasn't paying sufficient attention to how words work morphologically. These days I know no one better able to provide you with a thoughtful answer to your question, and boy was I right!

Word Matrix: a map of a word family

Word Sums: reveal underlying structure of any complex word (a word with more than just a base)

un + help + ful + ness > unhelpfulness

Here is Peter Bower's response (with my light editing)

I have no knowledge of such a list, but I wouldn't recommend one anyway.

My recommendation based on theory not direct research evidence - is that the main value comes from teaching all or many members of a morphological family at one time with the matrix and word sums (see the attached figure illustrating a matrix and word sum). In the younger grades I start with free bases [those morphemes that stand alone as words], but once that is established, I have no trouble introducing bound bases [the units that can't stand alone]. This relates to the research we cite about the value of studying meaningfully related items at one time rather than disconnected items.

Instead of a "scope and sequence" of morphemes to teach, what I recommend is starting with words in the children's vocabulary, analyzing such words to find their bases, then looking for other members of that family.

The point is not that there is a "scope and sequence" of morphemes to teach. Rather there is a kind of a "scope" of orthographic concepts that we want students to learn, and teachers can address those concepts based on whatever words are central to the readings they are introducing to the students.

A brief list of those concepts that should be taught would include:

Every word is a base or a base with something else (another base or affix)

Bases and affixes (morphemes) are the meaningful building blocks that construct words.

We can analyze complex words into constituent morphemes with word sums and show their interrelationship with a matrix.

English spelling prioritizes consistent spelling of morphemes over consistent pronunciation of morphemes. (This is why we refer to morphemes by their spelling not their pronunciation. The base of the word action is not referred to by the pronunciation of the word act. Instead it is referred to by its spelling. The base "a - c - t". This is the same as the fact that we don't refer to the <-ed> suffix by one or all of its three pronunciation, we call it by it's spelling "e-d suffix.")

Thus, we need to understand grapheme-phoneme correspondences from within the context of morphological families. (e.g. we learn the phonology of the grapheme by studying morphological families).

There are reliable conventions for the three suffixing conventions.

Studying and understanding the suffixing conventions is not primarily about improving spelling accuracy, it is about being able to analyze hypotheses about connections between words. We can test the hypothesis that has a base only if we know vowel suffixes replace final, non-syllabic s (image/ + ine -> imagine).

The "structure and meaning test": To determine that two words share a base, we need evidence from both structure (word sum) and meaning (etymology). So with the earlier example of words related to (play, playing, playful, replay, playhouse), we can prove all of those words can be analyzed with word sums with coherent affixes and bases. But we can also show that they all go back to an Old English root plegan, plegian for "frolic, move rapidly". However, the word which can be analyzed structurally turns out not to be related. It does not belong in the morphological family with the others because it goes back to a Latin root plac(ere) for "fold". So to "display" is to "unfold".

If we are going to teach children how their writing system works, we need to teach them the interrelation of morphology, phonology, and etymology. As we have pointed out, this is why Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) is not about "adding" morphological instruction to phonics instruction - its about teaching how the system works.

This is why I argue that SWI teaches grapheme-phoneme correspondences more explicitly and accurately than phonics. Phonics instruction (under the definition of associations of pronunciations and letters without reference to morphology or etymology) cannot explain the grapheme-phoneme correspondences in countless words like does or rough or every or homophones, and so on. So many people miss the absolute detail into orthographic phonology that comes with SWI.

Here are some videos to illustrate my point.

Grade 2 Morphology

A teacher showing investigations from his class.

Grade 1 Morphology

Investigating grapheme-phoneme correspondences - with the context of morphological word sums.

Kindergarten Morphology

A kindergarten lesson I taught introducing the word sum and matrix that touches on grapheme-phoneme correspondences like the pronunciation of the <-s> suffix for /z/ and /s/.

It's as simple as starting with the "known" and then expanding from that. Even if kids know all the words in a morphological family (e.g. play, playing, playful, replay, playhouse) the lesson is not about new vocabulary, but learning how word structure links words. That concept can then be applied anywhere.

The other thing I keep in mind when choosing morphological families to investigate is the orthographic concepts a family has to offer. If I've established the fact that words that share a base share a spelling and a meaning connection, then I can introduce a base like with words like actor, acting, react, and action as a way to introduce the fact that the pronunciation of morpheme might change but keep the spelling. In that way we learn the phonology of t is not the "t sound", but that the grapheme can write /t/ when that is the appropriate sound. I've attached an example of a lesson I've used for that before.

I also draw on the <-ed> suffix from early on to highlight this same concept that morphemes do not have pronunciations until they are in a word. The pronunciation of a word like is another useful one to get rid of this idea of a "t sound" since this very common pronunciation of a very common suffix is what is typically thought of the "t sound," but their ain't no /t/!

And then you also encounter words that give rise to the need to teach all the suffixing changes.

These are concepts teachers need to learn and they can bring into work with their class as they investigate words."

Shanahan again

I don't disagree with Peter on any of this, except I'm not as dismissive of the kind of list that you are requesting. I don't see it as mutually exclusive from the curriculum goals that he specified or contradictory of the kind of instruction he described.

Many teachers, when referring to morphology or "structural analysis", actually are talking about affixes alone, and not the bases. If that is the case here, there are some lists like that which present the most common prefixes and suffixes from textbooks in grades 3-9 (White, Sowell, & Yanagihara, 1989). You can easily find those lists on line and you could definitely make use of those lists to make sure that you are hitting all the notes if you do the word sums and matrixes that Peter recommends.

Otherwise, I haven't been able to come up with a graded list of bases for you to use. But I have passed your letter along to my friends at MetaMetrics (the Lexile people) and have asked if they could produce such a list from their language corpus of more than 1 billion words. Stay tuned!
See comments here ›

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What Should Morphology Instruction Look Like?

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Are there any resources that provide a list of morphemes to teach at each K-5 grade level? I have been looking for a definitive list of morphemes that is organized by grade level like the Fry sight word list.

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Baumann, J. F., & Kameenui, E. J. (1991). Research on vocabulary instruction: Ode to Voltaire. In J. Flood, J. D. Lapp, & J. R. Squire (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English Language Arts (pp. 604-632). New York: Macmillan.

Colorín Colorado. (2007). Using Science to Develop ELLs Language Skills .

Jones, R. (2007). Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Vocabulary Word Maps .

Jones, R.C., & Thomas, T.G. (2006). Leave No Discipline Behind. The Reading Teacher, 60(1), 58-64.

Schwartz, R. M., & Raphael, T. E. (1985). Concept of definition: A key to improving students' vocabulary. The Reading Teacher, 39, 198-205

Texas Education Agency. (2002). Teaching Word Meanings as Concepts .

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A word map is a visual organizer that promotes vocabulary development. Using a graphic organizer, students think about terms or concepts in several ways. Most word map organizers engage students in developing a definition, synonyms, antonyms, and a picture for a given vocabulary word or concept.

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You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Familiarity with Greek and Latin roots, as well as prefixes and suffixes, can help students understand the meaning of new words. This adapted article includes many of the most common examples.

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How to Make Morphology Instruction Multisensory

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From the beginning, we want students to understand that words carry meaning, and morphology is a great way to help students deepen their understanding of language. We don’t have to wait for this instruction to take place.

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As a principal, I want my teachers to teach student how to read a text closely. After going through your Powerpoint, reading the questions you suggest and the responses, I think professional development in developing questions would be required to ensure they were actually asking the right kind of questions.
One of the biggest implementation problems with Common Core that I see is that teachers (and curriculum designers) don't understand close reading well enough to ask appropriate questions. The point of the questions is to guide students' to think about the text in effective ways.

To help this principal (and others) to provide the professional development noted above, I have provided what I hope will be a useful example. But let's start off with a bit of explanation.

First, the questions should be about important issues raised by the text. Some people are taking close reading to mean "precise" reading or "thorough" reading. If you are asking about a story, you should ask about details that would be important in a summary of the story (e.g., character motivation, key plot details, theme). "Close" is not a synonym for "trivial."

Second, the questions should be text dependent. That just means that it shouldn't be possible to answer the question without reading the text. The focus of close reading should be on what the author presents, and not on anything else. That's the reason why it's a good idea for students to explain or support their answers with text evidence (proof - from the text)

Third, the questions should help the readers to accomplish three interpretive goals. Specifically, they should help the reader to think about what the text said (key ideas and details), how the text worked (craft and structure), and what it means (integration of knowledge and meaning). Unlike in other questioning schemes, these questions do not try to get kids to exercise particular thinking skills (e.g., inference, higher order reasoning, comparison); they focus on interpreting the text rather than on exercising particular cognitive muscles.

I have attached an old basal reader story (from the 1955-1965 period), The Railroad Cat , and below I have listed questions that I might ask a group of second- or third-graders about this story. I have separated my questions out into three sets - one set for each major interpretive goal, but they don't have to be asked in that way; they can be interspersed with each other.

I do think that it is a good idea to ask your questions in an order that helps students to follow through the text in an "orderly manner," particularly with regard to a first read or the key ideas and details questions. It is not enough that kids get practice reading texts, but they should come away knowing more about their world. If the questions/discussion/task takes you through the content in a well-organized way, students will be more likely to come away with content knowledge. Thus, you could have the students read this story three times, and each time use a different set of questions; or you could simply intersperse the second two sets of questions into the first wherever you think they fit best. In each list here, I have gone through the story in the same order that the author presented the pertinent information.

Of the three sets of questions, the "craft and structure" questions are the most characteristic of close reading (the other interpretive goals are important too, but they are not unique to close reading). That means that most of us need more practice with "craft and structure" - something largely or entirely neglected in the video that I recently critiqued in this space.

You may notice that I did not go through and try to have a balance of "right there" and "think and search questions" or that I didn't fool with Bloom's taxonomy. The reason is quite simple: my focus is on - and should be on - the text during close reading. If a text is very explicit, then I'll ask a lot more comprehension or "right there" questions. If the text is more oblique, then we'll end up with more inferencing practice. The point isn't the inferencing practice, however, it is to get students to think closely about the meaning of the particular text we are reading now (that's one of the reasons close reading questions are hard - because they follow each text, not some questioning scheme).

Questions about key ideas and details: what did the text say?

1. What was special about Tom?

2. What did Tom do when the men were loading the train?

3. Why did he pretend to sleep?

4. What did Tom do that got his picture in the newspaper?

5. How did his life change after he got in the newspaper?

6. What happened when the chipmunk showed up?

7. Why did Tom follow the chipmunk?

8. When he was in the railroad car what was Tom's problem?

9. When Tom got out of the car where was he?

10. Who found Tom?

11. How did the engineer know that Tom wanted to go with him?

12. Why did the engineer take him?

13. When the engineer and Tom left what was their problem?

14. When Tom yowled, what did the engineer think he wanted?

15. What changed the engineer's mind?

16. What did the fireman think Tom meant?

17. So what did the engineer do?

18. According to the engineer, why was it so important Tom yowled?

19. How did Tom know the bridge was out?

20. What happened after Tom saved the train?

Questions about craft and structure: how did the text work?

1. What does the author mean when he writes that Tom "had never seen a kitchen nor climbed a back yard fence"?

2. What is a "conveyor belt"?

3. What's "freight"?

4. On page 1, the story says that Tom was a "hero." What does that mean? (What made him a hero?)

5. On page 2, the author puts some words in quotation marks ("Oh, boy!," "Fish at last!" "thank you"). What is he trying to show by doing that? Can Tom talk?

6. What kind of story is this (fantasy or realistic fiction)?

7. On page 4, it again calls Tom a "hero." How is the meaning of "hero" different here than on page 1?

8. Why does the author tell us about the chipmunk again at the end?

Questions about integration of knowledge and meaning: what did the text mean?

1. The author used the word "hero" in two different ways. Which meaning is the right one?

2. What's the difference between being a hero and being famous?

3. Is it better to be a hero or to be famous

4. What was the point of the story? What did the author want you to learn from Tom?

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As a principal, I want my teachers to teach student how to read a text closely. After going through your Powerpoint, reading the questions you suggest and the responses, I think professional development in developing questions would be required to ensure they were actually asking the right kind of questions.

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Brady, S. (2011). Efficacy of phonics teaching for reading outcomes: Implications from Post-NRP research. In S. Brady, D. Braze, & C. Fowler (Eds.), Explaining individual differences in reading (pp. 69-96), London: Psychology Press.

Denton, C. A., Fletcher, J. M., Taylor, W. P., Barth, A. E., & Vaughn, S. (2014). An experimental evaluation of Guided Reading and explicit interventions for primary-grade students at-risk for reading difficulties. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 7(3), 268-293.

Ehri, L., Nunes, R. S., Stahl, S., & Willows, D. (2001). Systematic phonics instruction helps students learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel's meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 71, 393-447.

Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., Furgeson, J., Hayes, L., Henke, J., Justice, L., Keating, B., Lewis, W., Sattar, S., Streke, A., Wagner, R., & Wissel, S. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade (NCEE 2016-4008). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from the NCEE website: http://whatworks.ed.gov

Kilpatrick, D. (2015). Essentials of assessing, preventing, and overcoming reading difficulties. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

McCardle, P., & Chhabra, V. (Eds.). (2004). The voice of evidence in reading research. Baltimore, MD, Paul H. Brookes.

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National Reading Panel. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Child and Human Development.

Seidenberg, M. (2017). Language at the speed of sight: How we read, why so many can't, and what can be done about it. New York: Basic Books.

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Structured Literacy Instruction: The Basics

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Structured Literacy prepares students to decode words in an explicit and systematic manner. This approach not only helps students with dyslexia, but there is substantial evidence that it is effective for all readers. Get the basics on the six elements of Structured Literacy and how each element is taught.

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Structured Literacy: An Introductory Guide

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Successful literacy instruction and interventions provide a strong core of highly explicit, systematic teaching of foundation skills such as decoding and spelling skills, as well as explicit teaching of other important components of literacy such as vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.

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Anders, P. L., &Bos, C. S. (1986). Semantic feature analysis: An interactive strategy for vocabulary development text comprehension. Journal of Reading, 29, 610-617.

Billmeyer, Rachel. (2003). Strategies to Engage the Mind of the Learner: Building Strategic Learners. Dayspring Printing: Omaha, NE: Dayspring Printing.

Johnson, D. D. &Pearson, P. D. (1984). Teaching reading vocabulary. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Richardson, Judy S., and Raymond F. Morgan. (1999). Reading to Learn in the Content Areas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Texas Education Agency. (2002). Teaching Word Meanings as Concepts .

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The semantic feature analysis strategy uses a grid to help kids explore how sets of things are related to one another. By completing and analyzing the grid, students are able to see connections, make predictions, and master important concepts. This strategy enhances comprehension and vocabulary skills.

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Lenski, S. D., Wham, M. A., & Johns, J. L. (1999). Reading and learning strategies for middle and high school students. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Taba, H. (1967).Teacher's handbook for elementary social studies. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Tierney, R.J., & Readence, J.E. (2000). Reading strategies and practices: A compendium (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

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List-group-label is a form of semantic mapping. The strategy encourages students to improve their vocabulary and categorization skills and learn to organize concepts. Categorizing listed words, through grouping and labeling, helps students organize new concepts in relation to previously learned concepts.

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