Research
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Build Your Secondary ELA Classroom Around Scarborough’s Reading Rope: 5 Structural Shifts That Make It Happen
If you have been around here for any length of time, you know how I feel about Scarborough’s Reading Rope. It’s the best thing since sliced bread, friends. Seriously, I love it because it provides us with a framework for actually teaching comprehension. You might wonder how you can actually use it in a secondary Continue reading
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May the Close Reading Force Be With You!
Are you looking for a fun, engaging way to help your secondary ELA students become stronger readers? Try “Reading like a Jedi.” This fun twist on close reading is designed to combine the excitement of the Star Wars universe with research-backed reading practices from Scarborough’s Reading Rope. Why a Star Wars Twist Works Pop culture Continue reading
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Transforming Test Preparation in the Classroom
Test prep season is an inevitable part of the school year, often met with a mix of stress and determination by both teachers and students. Standardized tests are designed to assess student progress and school performance, but they also bring added pressure for teachers, working to ensure students are prepared. While it’s tempting to shift Continue reading
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Unlocking Deeper Comprehension: Engaging Strategies for Teaching Inferences in English Language Arts
Strong reading comprehension requires students to think beyond the text, make connections, and draw conclusions. This is where inferential and critical thinking play a crucial role. Scarborough’s Reading Rope places these skills into the category of Verbal Reasoning. This strand supports the reader’s ability to understand implied meanings, recognize themes, and analyze an author’s intent. Continue reading
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Understanding the Difference Between Global and Local Inferences
Reading comprehension is more than just decoding words on a page—it involves actively making connections and drawing conclusions based on the text. One of the components of Scarborough’s Reading Rope is Verbal Reasoning or Inferential Thinking. Inferences are one of the most common things that ELA teachers focus on in our secondary instruction, at least Continue reading
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Understanding Comprehension: A Key to Learning
What Does It Really Mean to Comprehend? To be completely honest, when I first started looking into how to help my older students comprehend, I don’t think I fully understood what it meant to comprehend. Read words.Understand what they say. The end. But it is actually way more complex than that. The amount of work Continue reading
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Understanding Scarborough’s Reading Rope: A Guide to Science of Reading in Secondary Settings
When it comes to teaching reading, teachers should seek effective frameworks to guide their approach to help students become skilled readers. One really powerful framework that you can use is Scarborough’s Reading Rope. This is another older idea that was introduced by Dr. Hollis Scarborough in 2001. However, it is still a really useful tool Continue reading
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Unlocking Reading Success: Four Effective Methods to Enhance Word Knowledge in Teens
The Simple View of Reading is an idea that explains reading comprehension as the combination of two main components. These are decoding and language comprehension. This theory was developed by the researchers Gough and Tunmer in 1986. It is older than I am… NONETHELESS, it is still something we need to know about! SVR simplifies Continue reading
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Science of Reading (SoR) Principles for Secondary Classroom Literacy
Elevate your teaching with Science of Reading strategies for the secondary classroom. Continue reading
