The Foundation of Success
Many students are uninspired, feel defeated by failure, and view reading as valueless and tiresome. To help students overcome these obstacles and to prepare them to meet the demands of college and career, we must change how students read, why students read, and what students are capable of reading. The instructional components of Reading Plus scaffold comprehension tasks while igniting curiosity and making reading efficient and enjoyable. As students experience success, they make connections, formulate opinions, and develop the ability to express and support those opinions with evidence and knowledge acquired from texts. Reading Plus develops capacity, efficiency, and motivation—the foundation of success.
Increasing Reading CAPACITY
Reading Plus provides an extensive library of engaging, cross-curricular informational and literary selections that adhere to grade-appropriate Lexile® metrics, and provide grade-appropriate levels of vocabulary complexity, sentence length, and word count. These rigorous controls ensure students encounter ever-increasing levels of text complexity. As a student demonstrates mastery in Reading Plus, the selections presented will have richer academic vocabulary, higher word counts, and deeper examinations of topics and themes. For students who require support, the program provides personalized scaffolds that help students engage with challenging texts rather than avoid them.
Building Comprehension CAPACITY
Academic Vocabulary
Vocabulary and contextual analysis activities are built around the 2,400 Words to Master, a research-based list of foundational academic vocabulary. These words are members of rich morphological families, so learning them provides students with a basis to recognize and understand 10,000 highly frequent, academic words within texts across curriculum domains.
Text-Dependent Comprehension
Rigorous, text-dependent comprehension questions follow each reading selection to monitor comprehension and assess a student’s ability to use higher-order thinking skills. All questions align with the Common Core Anchor Standards.
Reading/Writing Connection
Students respond to writing prompts by forming and substantiating arguments with relevant evidence from the selection and their own prior knowledge of the topic. Electronic comment threads between teachers and students support students in formulating well-considered positions while developing writing abilities.
Developing EFFICIENCY & STAMINA
Making Reading Productive
Reading Plus develops a student’s silent reading fluency, reading rate, and stamina that make reading comfortable and productive. The program provides essential structure to silent reading by scaffolding content, rate, repetition intensity, and lesson formats. Students build independent reading skills and confidence that prepare them for high-stakes tests, academic success, and challenges beyond secondary school.
Scaffolds for Independence
Our Guided Window changes the way students take in text while reading. The Guided Window gradually increases comprehension-based silent reading rates. As students develop and automate reading efficiency and fluency, they are able to focus efforts on comprehension and gaining knowledge, rather than on the process of reading. The Guided Window makes reading productive, which in turn makes it more enjoyable.
Igniting MOTIVATION
The motivational framework of the new Reading Plus provides a pathway to increased levels of interest and confidence. Students are provided with frequent opportunities for success and recognition as they achieve ever-greater levels of mastery. Achieving successive performance milestones builds self-efficacy and ability, allowing students to enjoy reading while gaining insight and knowledge.
Students self-select informational and literary texts from eight high-interest categories. Interest profiles help students make connections between their own interests and curriculum topics while igniting curiosity and expanding knowledge.
