It is helpful for students to learn a new word by associating it with other related words. The related words can be words students already know or new words. Semantic feature analysis is an engaging activity that can be used to make associations. One critical finding from research is that word learning takes place most efficiently when the reader or listener already knows something about the context related to a new word. We learn words up to four times faster in a familiar context than in an unfamiliar one (Landauer & Dumais, 1997; Hirsch, 2006). Vocabulary instruction that compares and c ..read more

This is a guest re-post of a blog recently written by Stephanie Stollar, founder of Stephanie Stollar Consulting and creator of The Reading Science Academy. Stephanie’s message caught our eye — she shares some important insights about issues related to implementing core literacy instruction for schools using a multi-tiered system of supports framework. I keep getting asked the same questions and running into the same issues related to MTSS and Tier 1. These questions and issues are challenging my understanding of the MTSS model. Am I crazy or have we strayed from the original intent of the mod ..read more

When you ask students to complete a writing assignment, how often do you receive something back that does not match what you were expecting from your students? Part of the problem is that students may not have enough information about your expectations. Often the directions for a writing task lack specificity, such as the following examples: Write a composition that compares and contrasts… Write a short research report about… Use information from these three sources to write an answer to this question… With broad assignments like these, students are understandably not sure about the purpose ..read more

The “W” questions — who, what, when, where, why, how — are small but powerful words that can be used in a number of ways to develop early elementary students’ literacy skills, including oral language and discussion skills, reading comprehension, and writing skills. Oral Language, Discussion Skills Many younger students in the primary grades do not regularly speak in full sentences or elaborate their ideas when they share with others in conversation. Students can use “W” questions to develop speaking and listening skills. Common Core Reading Standard #1 notes that by the end of grade 2 students ..read more

This post is focused on making the case for explicit instruction of comprehension strategies, including teaching students to identify and state main ideas. The growing awareness of the role of background knowledge in supporting reading comprehension has led some literacy professionals and journalists to proclaim that building background knowledge is the main solution to addressing students’ difficulties with reading comprehension. They posit that once students have learned decoding skills, having solid knowledge on the subject of the text is the key to comprehension; therefore, schools should ..read more

Since the publication of my book The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects in August, 2022, I have been asked to do several interviews for podcasts, webinars, and articles about the book. The book has also led to inquiries about how Keys to Literacy’s professional development courses are aligned with The Writing Rope. For this month’s blog post, I have collected questions and answers from these interviews. What inspired you to develop The Writing Rope? How did you envision it supporting teachers? I have long thought that there was a need for a framework to ..read more

All students across all grades should be provided access to complex, grade-level texts that offer opportunities to develop academic language (vocabulary and syntactic awareness) and acquire knowledge about the world, both of which contribute to development of reading comprehension.  High academic expectations for all students using challenging text is an important way to support students from multiple ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. Students should engage with complex text regularly by reading or listening. In the younger grades, this happens primarily through read-alouds. A ..read more

A significant number of the teacher trainings that Keys to Literacy delivers at schools and districts are focused on teaching reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing to students in grades 5-12. A common question teachers ask us is, “How can I motivate students to read and stay engaged while they are reading?” This is not surprising given that there is strong evidence that students’ motivation and interest in reading school-related texts declines after they move from elementary to middle school, and this is particularly true for students who have difficulty learning to read (Torgesen et ..read more

Writing is an effective tool for enhancing students’ learning in all subject areas (Graham et al., 2015; Graham & Perin, 2007). Graham and Hebert (2010) found that students’ comprehension of science, social studies, and language arts texts improved when they write about what they read, including writing personal reactions, analyzing and interpreting the text, writing summaries and notes, and answering and creating questions about text in writing. Students engage in critical thinking as they use writing to communicate ideas and information, especially when that writing is based on sources ..read more

Fluency, along with phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension, is one of the five components of reading identified by the National Reading Panel (2000). The panel found compelling evidence that instruction to increase reading fluency is critical to both comprehension and future reading success and ease. Fluency plays a role in helping students become motivated readers. It is the ability to read connected text at varying degrees of complexity accurately, appropriately paced, with logical phrasing and prosodic expression, with little conscious attention to the mechanics of ..read more