Pennington Publishing Blog

Welcome to the second post in our series on how elementary teachers can boost their students’ reading and civic skills. In our last post, we explored the “social studies squeeze” — how social studies has been pushed to the margins in many elementary classrooms. Today, we’ll tell you about a new program that is designed to build civics and reading skills for some of our youngest learners, giving them the tools they need to think critically, engage thoughtfully, become active participants in their communities, and improve their reading comprehension.  

Teaching Community

A great classroom isn’t just a place where students come to learn math facts or when to use there and their. A classroom is a community of students who come together to listen, collaborate, share, and respect each other’s ideas. A strong classroom community gives students real opportunities to find out what it means to belong to something bigger than themselves. 

This idea of being part of a larger community is one reason that teaching social studies matters so much. It provides a natural space to build a classroom community while simultaneously helping kids learn and explore how communities — from schools to towns to nations — work together. 

Even more importantly, though, social studies – more than any other subject – gives students the tools to become thoughtful citizens by encouraging them to work through disagreements, understand different perspectives, debate respectfully, and practice collaboration. If we want tomorrow’s citizens to be engaged and compassionate critical thinkers, we need to give them meaningful practice today.

However, when surveyed, many teachers admit that it’s hard to find time for social studies in an already packed schedule. It’s not that teaching community isn’t important; it’s that teaching kids valuable reading skills takes up so much time.

But what if there was a way to do both?

241 Books combines reading with social studies. Want to teach about community while reading a fun story about three best friends? You can!

Click to try out 241’s Y Street Trio series for free right now. Just visit 241books.com.  

It’s a standards-aligned, easy-to-use, student-centered collection of activities anchored by a cool story about three kids who, simply put, love gelato. With our lesson bundle, you can build reading comprehension while also teaching students about the critically important concept of community. Don’t have much time? No problem. Squeeze one piece of the lesson bundle into your reading block. Want to hit a bunch of standards while your kids dive into our interactive lessons? Great. Do the entire activity in about a week of 45-minute lessons. 

Fifth grade teacher Jenny Fisher recently became a fan of 241 Books. She says,

“The way 241 Books puts together lessons makes it easy for me to implement and creates a rich learning experience for my students. The students are the drivers of the discussions and learning, which increases engagement and ownership.”

Each Y Street Trio book follows a group of three curious kids who dig into real-world problems right where they live, Arbor Town. As students read, they not only practice critical literacy skills like asking questions, making inferences, and summarizing — they also explore important social studies themes like citizenship, compromise, local government, and communicating across differences. Meanwhile, they gain key background knowledge that will make them more capable readers. 

Every bundle includes high-interest videos, thoughtfully designed texts based on the science of reading, and hands-on activities that put students at the center of the learning, encouraging them to think, debate, and solve problems together — just like real citizens do. And, right now, you can grab a 241 lesson bundle for free. Click to try out 241’s Y Street Trio.

If you’ve been looking for a way to weave social studies and reading together without sacrificing depth, engagement, or your limited time, 241 Books’ Y Street Trio series might just be your solution. It will help students become stronger readers and better humans at the same time — and isn’t that the ultimate goal?

Steve Seely is an award winning teacher and a veteran curriculum designer. In 2024, he co-founded 241 Books where he creates books and materials to teach reading and social studies at the same time. If you have comments, questions, or want to request a 241 demo, please send an email to Steve at  sseely@241books.com. 

Grammar/Mechanics community curriculum, grade 3 social studies, teaching community

If you’ve stepped into an elementary school classroom lately, you might have noticed something missing. No? Look closer.

In between the shelves full of books and bins of art supplies there sits an empty shelf. Collecting dust. What used to be there? Social studies curriculum.

The Social Studies Squeeze

The truth is that social studies has been effectively squeezed out of most elementary school classrooms. Math and English gobble up instructional minutes. Social studies can only beg for scraps.

Roughly half of elementary schools have no adopted social studies curriculum. The average lower elementary teacher spends 16 minutes a day on social studies. By comparison, recess is usually 25 minutes a day, at least.

So why don’t teachers carve out more time for social studies? They want to. But the debates about how history gets taught and standardized tests that focus only on reading and math force hard questions that doom the subject: Why teach it when it isn’t being tested? Why teach it if it might make you a political target? Why indeed. 

This squeezing out of social studies has created a crisis in our schools. Unfortunately, it’s not the only one.

Twin Crises

It’s no secret that education in the United States is facing two serious crises. The first is literacy. Reading scores remain stubbornly disappointing. Kids from kindergarten to college aren’t reading as much or as well as they should.

The second crisis–civics–gets far less attention but is no less critical. In many places, citizenship skills go untaught and undeveloped. Our democracy desperately needs bolstering. Yet, we are failing to foster the skills that our kids need in order to become productive citizens.

For decades, I’ve had a front row seat to the social studies squeeze-out. Indeed, social studies has been my life’s work. I’ve spent 34 years teaching students and fellow educators about it. I’ve had a robust dual career in teaching and educational publishing: working for innovative social studies curriculum companies to create lessons designed to make history come alive for students across the country. 

My whole adult life has been dedicated to getting kids to care about social studies. However, it wasn’t always the tough job it is today.

An Easier Time for Social Studies Teachers and Publishers

When I started teaching and working in publishing in the nineties and early 2000s, there was a consensus about history pedagogy. Publishers broadened the American story to include more women and people of color. State and national standards pushed us to engage students in discussion, debate, and argumentation.  

We celebrated the idea that history is not math, a subject with one right answer. We asked students to consider multiple perspectives, to question, to wonder. I wore a t-shirt to school back then with one word on it: Think. It’s what active, involved citizens do. And social studies provides practice.

But somewhere along the way, we forgot that. We panicked. “Kids need to read,” we said. “They need to be able to write. They need to add, subtract, and divide.” And they do. But they also need to understand the world around them.

That’s where social studies comes in. And maybe with that insight, we would have found our way back. Maybe social studies would have slowly been able to snatch back some of those instructional minutes.

Except somehow, the very subject that helps foster discourse and debate became the subject of its own very heated debate. History wars were revived. And many teachers and publishers are now frightened of the subject. The social studies squeeze got worse.

What Should We Do? 

Is there a realistic way to get teachers to set aside more instructional minutes for social studies? 

Yes. Teachers can improve reading scores and bring back social studies. They can foster literacy and create better citizens. The solution requires unboxing and combining disciplines in new ways. But it can be done. 

How? Teach reading and social studies at the same time. 

Social studies disciplines like history, geography, economics, and civics help build the background knowledge that gives students a better chance at reading success. 

The science of reading tells us that background knowledge is the key to improving reading comprehension. A struggling reader who knows a lot about baseball comprehends an article about baseball better than a proficient reader who doesn’t know much about the sport.  It turns out, the more you know, the better you read. The better you read, the more you know. 

Want to improve reading scores? Check out 241 Books

Teach reading and social studies at the same time. The best news is that you can try out 241’s ready-to-run lessons for free right now. Just visit 241books.com.  

Teach literacy and social science background knowledge together in the same prime-time reading block. Teach vocabulary, word parts, and social studies analysis skills simultaneously. Teach discussion and citizenship skills together. Engage students in rich, inspiring social studies stories, and encourage them to write their own. 

Reading and social studies are natural partners, like chocolate and sea salt. The wall between the two serves no one. That’s why I co-founded 241 Books with celebrated children’s author Erin Fry and creative design genius Amy Hauck-Wilson.

Every day, our 241 team creates two-for-ones that make teaching reading and social studies fun, easy, and impactful.  We build engaging, student-centered, lesson bundles that include high interest books, videos, and ready-to-use lesson materials. Every bundle is packed with powerful two-for-ones: reading and social studies, fiction and nonfiction, literacy and civics.  

Our materials will make your students better readers and better humans.

Please visit 241books.com to try our curriculum, including a digital book and ready-to-use lesson plans. It’s free! You’ll see how easy it is to teach reading and social studies at the same time. And you’ll squeeze social studies back into your day. 

*****

Steve Seely is an award winning teacher and a veteran curriculum designer. In 2024, he co-founded 241 Books, where he creates books and materials to teach reading and social studies at the same time. Please send comments or questions to sseely@241books.com.

Grammar/Mechanics background knowledge, civic crisis, civic education, elementary social studies, history wars, literacy, literacy crisis, reading skills, science of reading, social studies

Syntax Stretch, Change, and Expand

Reading and writing research have been consistently clear that syntactic manipulation, revision, sentence expansion, and sentence combining improve reading comprehension and increase writing dexterity and sophistication.

Syntax Stretchers is a review activity, based upon sentence-level grammatical functions. Ideally, a grammar or writing program would help students learn the definition of the syntactic content, practice identification and syntactic manipulation and sentence expansion, and apply this new learning in their own reading and writing. The author’s two programs, Syntax in Reading and Writing and Teaching Essay Strategies do so.

How to Use Syntax Stretchers
(Tools: White board with markers, computer and display projector, the Syntax Stretchers graphic for reference)

Syntax Stretcher

First, students build a Syntax Stretcher sentence, starting with 1. Who? or What? and adding words or phrases with these (some or all) sentence functions:  2. Did? Does? or Will Do? and What? 3. Where? 4. When? 5. How? 6. Why? Type these out for your display projector.

Example: A little turtle crossed the road here at night, slowly but surely, to visit the pond.

Changer

Next, the teacher (or student) rolls a die, and students change the last Syntax Stretcher corresponding to the number rolled. Type the new sentence function, indicated by the die roll and the Changer description. Highlight the old sentence function and add a strikethrough (font effects). Lead student in a choral read of the new sentence. Discuss whether its punctuation and meaning have changed. Control-z (undo) to restore the last Syntax Stretcher, and keep on rolling that die for more syntactic manipulations. 

Example: If the die rolled to a “5,” students begin the last Sentence Stretcher with a How?

Last Syntax Stretcher: A little turtle crossed the road here at night, slowly but surely, to visit the pond.

Changer: Slowly but surely, a little turtle crossed the road here at night to visit the pond.

Expander

Last, the teacher names a conjunction type i.e. coordinating, subordinating, or correlative, and students practice sentence expansion by creating a compound, complex, or compound-complex sentence to expand the last Syntax Stretcher. Tell students to write their own sentence expansions at their desks, and then ask for volunteers (or assign students) to write them on the board. Lead students in a choral read of these sentences. Discuss whether any words were changed to fit the sentence expansion and why they needed to be revised.*

Example: “Use a subordinate conjunction at the beginning of the last Sentence Stretcher to create a complex sentence.”

Last Syntax Stretcher: A little turtle crossed the road here at night, slowly but surely, to visit the pond.

Expander: Although she was tired, *the little turtle crossed the road here at night, slowly but surely, to visit the pond. ell

Download the Sentence Stretcher Review Activity

Syntax Stretch, Change, and Expand

Syntax in Reading and Writing will help your students learn the function of syntactic tools in reading and writing at the sentence level. No endless grammar identification and terminology worksheets; no DOL error correction; no mini-lessons; but lessons which teach how challenging sentences are constructed.

The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses weekly lessons are leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each):

1. Learn It! (the syntactic content and examples)

2. Identify It! (a short practice section)

3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences featuring the syntactic focus)

4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation)

5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Additionally, the teacher and students Find It! by searching class and independent reading texts for syntactically similar sentences to analyze and explain.

Teaching Essay Strategies

The Teaching Essay Strategies BUNDLE features three instructional programs:

How to Teach Essays includes 42 skill-based essay strategy worksheets (fillable PDFs and 62 Google slides), beginning with simple 3-word paragraphs and proceeding step-by-step to complex multi-paragraph essays. One skill builds upon another. Students build a solid foundation with the body paragraph and learn how to write effective thesis statements (claims), introductions, and conclusions. Different syntax sentence starters help the teacher teach grammar in the writing context via sentence expansion. Upon completion of each worksheet, the teacher mini-conferences with the student to review the formative writing assessment. If mastered, the student moves on to the next worksheet. If not, the student revises and re-conferences or the teacher assigns additional practice with the targeted…

Essay Skills Worksheets. These 97 worksheets (printables and 97 Google slides) help the teacher differentiate writing instruction with both remedial and advanced writing skills. For example, students who struggle with writing complete sentences need the four worksheets addressing fragments and run-ons, as well as the four subject and predicate worksheets. However, more developed writers will benefit from the errors in reasoning, writing style, transitions, types of evidence, introduction and conclusion strategies worksheets.

Once students have mastered the body paragraph, the teacher assigns one of the Eight Writing Process Essays (printables and 170 Google slides). Each essay features an on-demand diagnostic essay assessment, writing prompt with connected reading, brainstorming, graphic organizer, response, revision, and editing activities. Plus, each essay includes a detailed analytical (not holistic) rubric for assessment-based learning.

Grammar/Mechanics sentence combination, sentence expansion, syntax, syntax stretcher

What instructional resources do teachers need to supplement UFLI for Older Students? Many intermediate and upper elementary, middle school, high school, and adult literacy teachers, who are using the UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute) Foundations program for reading intervention, are searching for UFLI resources for older students.

UFLI Foundations (usually referred to by teachers as “UFLI”) was designed, field-tested, and studied as a core K-2 program. The program has quickly become the go-to structured literacy program for science of reading-oriented teachers.  The scripted directions, free cost (except for the $70 teachers manual), and supplemental teacher and parent resources make UFLI a near-perfect program selection for K-2 Tier 1 instruction. I would use it if I were teaching K-2.

However, for teachers using UFLI for older students, supplementary resources are needed.

Reasons Teachers Need to Supplement UFLI Lessons for Older Students

Reason #1. The UFLI Foundation lessons are only 30 minutes each. UFLI is a word recognition (phonics, spelling, etc.) program only. Older students need the upper strand of Scarborough’s Rope, as well: Language Comprehension. Teachers may wish to check out The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension to supplement UFLI for older students.

Reason #2. The decodable passages are not age-appropriate for older readers.

I asked Dr. Holly Lane, UFLI director, in a FB group post whether the Foundations program is appropriate for older intervention students, and she answered, “If they don’t know it, they need what UFLI provides.”

I certainly agree that if students don’t know the reading basics, they need to learn them. However, how they learn the reading basics matters.

For example, let’s compare a UFLI decodable passage to a story from my Sam and Friends Phonics Books. Both decodables introduce the long /a/ sound-spellings.

Following is the UFLI Lesson 84 passage, introducing the “ai” and “ay” sound-spellings (Note: The “a_e” sound-spelling is introduced in Lesson 54.)

Sunday Fun

On Sundays, Gail visits her brother at his farm. Gail loves to go to the farm because there is so much to do. She starts the day in the garden. If it did not rain, she sprays the plants with water.

Then, Gail and her brother walk on the trail from the garden to the pond. As they walk, Gail hunts for snail shells. When she finds shells, she tucks them in her pocket. She will paint them when she gets home.

At the pond, her brother likes to fish. He strings bait onto his fishing pole and waits for a bite. While they wait, Gail plays in the mud and clay.

At the end of the day, they walk back up the trail to go home. As they walk, they see the sun set and the day fade away.

© 2022 University of Florida Literacy Institute https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/84_Decodable_UFLIFoundations.pdf

*****

Let’s compare the UFLI long /a/ passage to my Sam and Friends Phonics Books decodable. Notice the additional practice, word fluency, and comprehension supports to introduce the long /a/ “a,” “a_e,” “_ay,” “_ai,””eigh” spellings.

© 2021 Pennington Publishing View all 54 Sam and Friends Phonics Books here (the above jpg it too hard to read): https://penningtonpublishing.com/collections/reading/products/the-science-of-reading-intervention-program-bundle

Which lesson resource is more age-appropriate for, say a fourth or seventh grader in your reading intervention class? Simply put, older students who struggle with reading are fundamentally different than beginning readers. I’ve read through much of the UFLI manual and some corresponding decodables and they, fortunately, are not too babyish. However, the characters, plots, and themes do not deal with the interests of older students. In particular, the urban and ELL students I and many other teachers work with. Teachers may wish to check out all 54 Sam and Friends Phonics Books. Print, tablet, and phone formats. Preview every single book to see how these age-appropriate decodables will match the needs and interests of older readers.

*****

But why supplement UFLI Foundations, when you can purchase the comprehensive reading intervention, specifically designed for older readers? Mark Pennington is the author of The Science of Reading Intervention Program–a full year word recognition and language comprehension program for ages-adult. Preview the entire program in the product description. Also, click the link to view a real-time video of a complete sample lesson.

Grammar/Mechanics decodables for older readers, phonics, reading intervention, supplemental UFLI resources, UFLI, UFLI resources

Few common teacher instructional practices have generated more pejorative comments than targeted worksheets for independent practice. For example, for many teachers, the adjectival phrase, “drill and kill,” must precede the noun, “worksheets.” And teachers who use such worksheets are often labeled as “lazy, traditional, ignorant of educational research, and/or weak in behavioral management skills.” Especially guilty of malpractice are those who use workbooks, filled to the brim with worksheets.

However, the dirty little secret is that may of us teachers do use targeted worksheets for independent practice during small group reading or ELA instruction. It may be time for us to come out of the closet, as Dr. Tim Shanahan has done in his August 31, 2024 Shanahan on Literacy blog, titled “Seatwork that Makes Sense for Reading.” Tim admits, “Like most professors, I have long looked askance at worksheets and their role in reading instruction (though I had relied upon them as a teacher).”

Now when teachers read an article from the Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chi­cago and lead researcher on the National Reading Panel, we expect Tim to cite the relevant research on the topic i.e., independent practice worksheets.

However, Tim comments, “Except there is no body of research on seatwork (just one study as far as I can tell—and, though helpful, it doesn’t even attempt to describe appropriate instruction in any kind of specific detail).”

The study Dr. Shanahan refers to (Amendum, et al., 2024) “…was a correlational study, which identified how time was spent in classrooms and its relationship to learning to read. It found that the most effective teachers were using a combination of authentic texts and worksheets, etc. Unlike in some past studies, there was no particular benefit to using one type of material over another — in other words, they did see some learning gains due to use of seatwork activities” (Shanahan’s Comments).

So from Tim’s review of this one relevant study and his informed opinion, this noted researcher and former teacher concludes, “Good teachers often use a mix of direct instruction along with some practice sheets.”

Now of course, Tim’s conclusions, which I whole-heartedly share, beg too many questions to fully answer here; however, if we agree that direct, explicit, whole-class instruction is our priority, but some small group work is necessary to differentiate instruction, it makes sense that the independent worksheets and/or activities we use in our classrooms during small group instruction need to be carefully designed to maximize learning.

My view is that independent practice should be targeted to specific, diagnostically assessed literacy deficits. And worksheet practice should conclude with formative assessment to determine mastery of the practiced concept or skill.

Targeted Independent Practice

My Targeted Independent Practice series supports teachers with quality assessment-based independent learning. Each program includes 1. A comprehensive diagnostic assessment to determine student needs 2. Targeted worksheets corresponding to the specific diagnostic test components 3. Formative assessments to determine mastery. View each program in its entirety.

*** Reading Fluency and Comprehension

*** Spelling

*** Phonics

*** Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics

*** Literacy Knowledge

*** Executive Function and Study Skills

Not sure if your students need interventions? Download the free Targeted Independent Practice Diagnostic Assessments and let the data inform your instructional decision-making.

Study Skills executive function skills, free diagnostic assessments, reading worksheets, small group worksheets, study skills, targeted worksheets

Six Vocabulary Program Goals

I’m Mark Pennington, reading specialist and author of the popular grade-level vocabulary programs, titled Comprehensive Vocabulary Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. As I was sharing resources and research about vocabulary programs online, I came across numerous reading, ELL, SPED, and English-language arts Facebook groups posts and comments which asserted that vocabulary programs were unnecessary, and even counter-productive. That sentiment can’t be good for my vocabulary programs.

So, to change the direction of that battleship and convince a few teachers that vocabulary programs could be beneficial, I went for the big guns—the always quotable Dr. Timothy Shanahan, Professor Emeritus from the University of Chicago and chief researcher of the National Reading Panel. I came across Tim’s “The Six Goals for an Ideal Vocabulary Curriculum” in his Shanahan on Literacy blog from January 13, 2020 (https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/the-six-goals-of-an-ideal-vocabulary-curriculum).

So, how do my Comprehensive Vocabulary programs stack up, according to Tim’s criteria? Having never read Tim’s article, I was pleased to find that my resources were perfectly aligned to his “Six Goals.” I wrote to Dr. Shanahan for permission to reprint his article in this format: black font for the professor and red font for my comments and vocabulary program comparisons. Approval granted.

Teacher question:

Could you recommend a strong vocabulary curriculum that my school could adopt?

Shanahan responds:

Because I work with various companies, I never recommend particular programs.

However, while there are vocabulary programs, this is an area where teachers are often expected to go their own way. Given that, let me suggest the scope of an outstanding vocabulary curriculum. My focus here is on what needs to be taught, rather than on the instructional approaches needed to accomplish this.

Overall, an ideal vocabulary curriculum would encourage the teaching of six things.

First, the ideal vocabulary curriculum would aim to increase students’ knowledge of the meanings of specific words. Vocabulary knowledge is closely correlated with reading comprehension (Nation, 2009), and there are studies in which words have been taught thoroughly enough to raise reading comprehension (NICHD, 2000). Knowing the meanings of words matters.

Vocabulary can be learned both from explicit teaching and implicitly from any interaction with language, and reading can be an especially target-rich environment for that. A curriculum, of course, would mainly focus on the explicit part of the equation. It would specify the words thought to be valuable for kids’ learning – the one’s we’d monitor to see if progress was being made.

Exactly. Enough of the “Vocabulary should solely be taught in the context of authentic literature” or “All vocabulary acquisition is gained implicitly through free-choice independent reading.” Vocabulary programs have their place.

This part of a vocabulary curriculum would include collections of words. The words in these collections should be worth learning (that simply means they should appear in print frequently so that knowing them is advantageous), and they should be worth the instructional time (which means that students at this grade level wouldn’t know them already). There needs to be a scope and sequence of these words so that teachers at different grade levels won’t keep teaching and reteaching the same words over and over.

Essential. In my grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Comprehensive Vocabulary programs, Greek and Latin morphemes have been selected according to high frequency research studies. The academic vocabulary (academic language) words have been chosen from the research-based Academic Word List.

Given the length of a school year, the numbers of words students are likely to retain, and the demands of review, I’d aim to teach about 150 words per year (students will learn more than that due to implicit learning).

I love Dr. Shanahan’s specificity–precisely the practical information every teacher wants to know in choosing vocabulary programs. Each of my grade-level programs features 168 words.

Second, an ideal vocabulary curriculum would include a list of key morphemes to be taught; prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms. Research supports the value of such teaching (Bowers, Kirby, & Deacon, 2010). But, unfortunately, it doesn’t provide clarity with regard to how many such elements to teach, so I can’t estimate as I did with words.

Each grade-level program provides 56 key morphemes, paired as memorable anchor words. 

As usual, it makes the greatest sense to teach those morphological elements that are most frequent and there need to be grade level agreements so everybody isn’t teaching pre- and -able while no one familiarizes the kids with -re and -ment.

Download the FREE Vocabulary Instructional Sequence at the end of this article to see the high frequency Greek and Latin morphemes (and other word collections) in each grade-level program.

Third, an important part of vocabulary learning is developing an ability to use context to determine meanings of unknown words. Good readers can both figure the meanings of words they’ve never encountered previously, and they can decide which of a word’s meanings is the relevant one in a given context (you don’t want kids thinking that the Gettysburg Address refers to where Lincoln stayed when he visited Pennsylvania).

Most reading programs don’t do enough with this, so we should not be surprised that students do such poor job of it. Research (Schatz & Baldwin, 1986) found that odds of students getting words right from context was pretty random. Middle schoolers were as likely to light on an opposite meaning as they were a correct definition! A word like “ebony” was interpreted as meaning white as often as black.

Basically, we spend too much time preteaching words before reading, but not enough on close questioning to determine whether they’ve interpreted a word correctly. We certainly do not invest enough in showing students how to use context when reading. That would be an important part of an ideal vocabulary curriculum, and it would be taught during the various forms of guided or directed reading activities.

Teachers teach; not texts. A bit of hyperbole, but all instruction is reductive. Often, stories include specialized vocabulary which is rarely used in other texts. Or non-fiction may feature domain-specific Tier 3 words, which must be explained, but not practiced to the mastery levels that Tier 2 words necessitate.

My Comprehensive Vocabulary worksheets include analogies (I call them “Word Relationships”), which require students to apply the SALE Context Clue Categories to define one word in terms of another. Here’s an example:

Word Relationships Item to Category Directions: Write one or two sentences using both vocabulary words. Use SALE (Synonym, Antonym, Logic, Example) context clues to show the related meanings of each word.

–descendant (n) Someone who is related to a specific ancestor.
–relative (n) A family member by blood or marriage.

Fourth, whatever happened to the dictionary? One key element in learning to deal with vocabulary is the learning how to find out the meanings of a word. These days that’s a bit more complicated than when I was in school, given the availability of multiple online dictionaries, pop-up dictionaries, and the like. Students should be taught to use these resources throughout the elementary grades as appropriate. There are also specialized dictionaries, like science dictionaries or history dictionaries; those should be the province of high schools.

Dictionary instruction appears to be a lost art. Students need to know how dictionaries work, how to identify the appropriate definition from a dictionary entry, what to do when they don’t understand a definition, and so on.

Often overlooked, the Common Core State Standards in Language 4.C include instruction and practice in these language resources:

“Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech” (https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/).

My Comprehensive Vocabulary worksheets provide this instruction and practice. Using the lesson’s Greek and Latin anchor word (two morphemes), students consult dictionaries and thesauruses to “divide the vocabulary word into syl/la/bles, mark its primary áccent, list its part of speech, and write its primary definition.” Additionally, students provide synonyms, antonyms, or examples found in the language resources.

Fifth, students need to develop a sense of diction, both as readers (or listeners) and as writers (or speakers). Words are complex and nuanced. They not only carry the declarative meanings that appear in dictionaries, but they convey attitudes and feelings. It matters whether you “question” your students or if you “interrogate” them.

As with the teaching of use of context, this part of the instruction is likely to make the greatest sense if it is linked to comprehension or communication. Students need to improve in their ability to discern author’s perspective or shades of meaning based on the author’s choice of words and for older students it is critical that they come to recognize how word choice influences bias. Such learning may not entail the development of new vocabulary, but the ability to implications of vocabulary already known.

My Comprehensive Vocabulary worksheets help students understand and apply the nuances in related word meanings on semantic spectrums. The lesson’s two focus vocabulary words (either synonyms or antonyms in some degree) are paired with two Tier 1 (already known) words. Here’s an example:

Connotations Shades of Meaning Directions: Write the vocabulary words where they belong on the Connotation Spectrum.

–lethargic (adj) One who acts tired, slow, and lazy.
–industrious (adj) One who works very hard.

←←← lazy ______________ busy ______________ →→→

Sixth, students need to develop a word conscience (or they need to learn the metalinguistic aspects of vocabulary (Nagy, 2007)). Here, I can’t tell you much from research. However, as someone who regularly reads text in a language that I cannot speak and who reads in many fields of study that I’m not especially well versed in (e.g., economics, physics, chemistry, biology, communications, political science), I have become quite aware of the importance of vocabulary conscience.

Good readers – in this case, readers who handle vocabulary well – need to be aware of when they do not know the meaning of a word. If you aren’t conscious that you don’t actually know a word’s meaning, then you are going to have comprehension problems (for instance, do you really know what “accost” or “voluptuous” mean?). If you are unaware of your ignorance, then you won’t be skeptical of your use of context, you won’t know when to turn to the dictionary, or that morphological analysis might be a good idea.

Here I will add components to Dr. Shanahan’s discussion of word conscience: idiomatic expressions e.g., “He walked through the door” and figures of speech e.g., “She was my rock.” The Common Core authors include these language and literary devices in Language 5.A, and my Comprehensive Vocabulary worksheets feature these essential language components.

Up to one-third of spoken vocabulary is comprised of these expressions. I can vouch for the accuracy of this fraction from my own experience. Years ago, after taking Spanish classes each year of middle school, high school, and college, I moved to Mexico City to study at the National University (UNAM) and refine my Spanish fluency. I read with understanding; however, lectures and daily conversations were maddeningly incomprehensible. It took time to layer on these informal, but integral, language components.

Word conscience also includes recognizing when it’s okay not to worry about a word meaning. Often, I can gain understand what I need from a text, without knowing the meaning of every word. Recognizing when I can safely (and ignorantly) proceed, and when I’d better do a bit more work, is an important distinction that good readers make.

This aspect of vocabulary knowledge also governs what I do when I don’t know all the words and have no tools to solve them. Sometimes readers just need to power through, making sense of as much of a text as possible, accepting that they aren’t getting it all since they don’t know all the words. Sometimes 50% understanding just has to be better than 0%. Too many readers encounter a couple of unknown words and call it day. Vocabulary conscience includes the development of reading stamina in low vocabulary knowledge situations

Of course, this sounds like six discrete areas of learning, but there is nothing discrete about them. Those words that are taught explicitly could also be the source for morphological study.  Words the students struggled to figure out from context could be added to the memorization list and any words that students know could become the focus of lessons on diction. Any of these can be confronted in reading, writing, or oral language instruction, too, and simply encouraging an interest in words belongs here, too.

What would be the ideal vocabulary curriculum? One that increases the numbers of valuable words that students know, that increases their ability to define words from morphology and context, that fosters an awareness of meaning and diction, that enhances the ability to use appropriate reference tools, and that encourages metalinguistic awareness and sensitivity when dealing with word meanings.

Thank you, Dr. Shanahan. And for my readers, preview my vocabulary programs in their entirety to see if you agree with me that Comprehensive Vocabulary Grade 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 check off all his boxes for “ideal vocabulary programs.”

Get the Grades 4,5,6,7,8 Vocabulary Sequence of Instruction FREE Resource:

Reading, Spelling/Vocabulary Comprehensive Vocabulary, Tim Shanahan, vocabulary programs

Language Comprehension

Literacy knowledge refers to how language and text are organized to communicate.

“We have long known that students benefit from instruction in common structures and elements of narrative or story text (e.g.,  identifying  characters, setting, goal, problem, events, resolution, and theme; e.g., Fitzgerald & Spiegel, 1983). With respect to informational text, meta-analyses (quantitative studies of many studies) have also documented positive impacts (Hebert, Bohaty, & Nelson, 2016; Pyle et al., 2017).”

Nell K. Duke, Alessandra E. Ward, P. David Pearson, 2021 

Children begin acquiring literacy knowledge even before their first “Once upon a time…” story. Children from literate households learn a wealth of background literacy knowledge even before they begin to read. Through print and media, children are exposed to story structure, character development, and the elements of plot. Moreover, students experience different kinds of narratives, such as fairy tales, poems, and songs—many of which include sensory/descriptive writing.

In addition to narrative and sensory descriptive genre, children also learn expository structures and their components. For example, when a parent tells a child the agenda for the day such as “First, we will finish our breakfast; next, you will brush your teeth; afterwards, you will put on your backpack…,” the child learn sequential organization and key sequence and number transitions.

Because older students in reading intervention classes often have missed out on many pre-reading learning experiences, the reading intervention teacher has gaps in literacy background knowledge to fill to help their students access prior knowledge when reading different types of text.

Language Comprehension Literacy Knowledge is one of seven key components in the upper strand of Scarborough’s Reading Rope. The 47 Literacy Knowledge lessons, included in The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension, serve as a crash course in text structures, literary elements, sentence functions, and genres for your students. Students will learn to identify (read) and apply (write] narrative and sensory/descriptive text structures and literary elements. Students will also learn to identify (read) and apply (write] expository and argumentative text structures and sentence functions in a wide variety of genre to improve reading comprehension. Each lesson takes about 35 minutes to complete.

The narrative and sensory/descriptive lessons are provided first, followed by the expository and argumentative lessons, but the teacher may decide to pick and choose. Some of the lessons build upon previous lessons, but others are stand-alone. 

The teacher introduces each lesson; students complete guided practice with correction and review; and students complete the lesson with independent practice, which serves as the formative assessment. Answers included.
*****

Language Comprehension

Reading background knowledge, genre, language comprehension, literacy knowledge, literary elements, prior knowledge, text structure

Spelling Lists and Tests

I often hear that the weekly spelling test is not supported by research. More explicitly, I hear that (or biweekly) spelling lists and tests with the traditional pretest-study-posttest methodology  are not “best practice.” Some teachers go so far to say that spelling lists and tests are “harmful.”

However, three renowned spelling experts seem to support this traditional methodology (citations follow at end of article).

Dr. Louis Moats: “Word lists organized by a concept or pattern of orthography; Test-study… then test on Friday… with immediate corrective feedback.”

Dr. Richard Gentry: “In every weekly unit, students take a pretest on the very first day. They find out what words they need to learn, focus on studying these unknown words, and take a Friday test to find out if they have mastered the unknown words. Our research based test-study-test cycle is an example of self-testing, which the study by Dunlosky and colleagues found to be the single most effective learning technique.”

Dr. Steve Graham: (In response to “What about the weekly spelling test?”) “If you have a spelling list that emphasizes, say like two or three patterns that you’re building off of through word sorts and learning, then you can learn about the underlying orthography, how letters and sounds are connected in English and that serves as a springboard for recognizing those kinds of patterns in words. We’ve got a meta-analysis of about 200 studies, and it would support that, as well.  If you break your spelling list into the patterns that are emphasized and that’s what the focus of your spelling instruction is–not just the memorization of words, it can make a difference.”

Now these researchers would agree that at the K-2 levels, the weekly spelling test protocol should be taught in conjunction with explicit, systematic phonics and writing  and not as a separate program. However, at 3rd grade and older, effective spelling instruction morphs (pun intended) into multi-syllabic encoding, advanced conventional spelling rules, spelling irregularities, Greek and Latin morphemes, and more. Additionally, intermediate and upper elementary, as well as middle school teachers will attest to the fact that many of their students still lack foundational spelling rules.

So, particularly for grades 3-8 students, how can we adapt the research-based pretest-study-posttest methodology to teach advanced spelling skills, while remediating any K-2 spelling patterns that students have not yet mastered? Can we use this weekly spelling test methodology to differentiate spelling instruction and help older students keep up while they catch-up with efficient and easily-managed procedures and resources? Yes!

Follow the four-step weekly procedure used in my Differentiated Spelling Instruction grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 American and Canadian English spelling programs, and use the free resources.

1. Pretest: On the first day of each week, students take out a piece of binder paper for the spelling pretest. Dictate 15–20 grade-level spelling pattern words in the traditional word-sentence-word format to all your students on the first day of each week. No random, topical lists of colors, names of the months, etc. Have students self-correct from teacher dictation of letters in syllable chunks, marking dots below the correct letters, and marking an “X” through the numbers of any spelling errors. Don’t rob your students of this learning activity by correcting the pretest yourself. Immediate, corrective feedback is strongly supported by research.

2. Personalize: Students complete their own Personal Spelling List in Elkonin Sound Boxes to connect sounds to spellings in the following order of priority:

Pretest Errors: Students copy up to six of their pretest spelling errors onto a Personal Spelling List.

Last Posttest Errors: Students add up to three spelling errors from last week’s spelling posttest.

To add diagnostic data to the weekly spelling test, teachers should assess to determine individual spelling deficits.

Diagnostic Spelling Assessment:

Administer the free Diagnostic Spelling Assessment to determine which previous grade-level spelling patterns your students have and have not mastered. Students add up to three unmastered spelling pattern words from this test.

Diagnostic American English Spelling Assessment: Print Assessment with “Normal speed” 22:38 and “Quick version 17:26 audio file links. Recording Matrix for Progress Monitoring

Diagnostic Canadian English Spelling Assessment: Print Assessment with “Normal speed” 18:53 and “Quick version 21:12 audio file links. Recording Matrix for Progress Monitoring

Writing Errors: Students add up to three teacher-corrected spelling errors found in student writing.

Supplemental Spelling Lists: Students select and use words from the following resources to complete their Personal Spelling List. You decide how many words should be included on the list.

• For remedial spellers:
  Heart Words  Heart Words Assessment
  High Frequency Words (Organized by Spelling Patterns)
  Most Often Misspelled Words
  Commonly Confused Words
• For grade level and accelerated spellers:
  Greek and Latin Morphology (combined affixes and bases)
  Academic Language—Tier 2 words previously introduced by the teacher  Diagnostic Academic Language Assessments Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8

3. Practice: Explain the spelling patterns, applicable spelling rules, and provide examples. Students complete spelling sorts to identify similarities and differences among the patterns. Add additional words which conform to the spelling patterns for practice; it’s the spelling pattern that students are practicing, not solely the words themselves.

Writing context clue sentences can also be helpful, especially with commonly confused words. Quick spelling review games aid study. Make sure to model how to study by saying the sounds as students write their corresponding letters. Deemphasize the visual approach to word memorization. No spelling shapes, rainbow writing, write the spelling word 10 times.

For remediation, students complete spelling pattern worksheets on spelling patterns not yet mastered (indicated by the Diagnostic Spelling Assessment). In my programs, each self-guided worksheet includes an explanation and examples of the spelling pattern, a comprehensive spelling sort, writing application, and a one-sentence formative assessment. Students self-correct the worksheet practice and the teacher grades the formative assessment. The recording matrices help teachers monitor progress.

4. Posttest: At the end of the week, or to save class time, at the end of two weeks, posttest on the Personal Spelling List. Note that a biweekly posttest covers two spelling pretests. Students take out a piece of binder paper and find a partner to exchange dictation of their Personal Spelling List words. Monitor the testing to ensure that students aren’t cheating. If using the biweekly posttest, consider telling students to test only the even (or odd) number words from their Personal Spelling List to save class time. The teacher grades the posttests.

Grades 3-8 Spelling Scope and Sequence (American and Canadian English Versions)

Differentiated Spelling Instruction

Many teachers want to create their own spelling lists, tests, and practice for the weekly spelling test procedure. To help grade-level teams do so, many teachers find this Grades 3-8 Spelling Scope and Sequence to be helpful. Both American and Canadian English Versions are included in this free download.

Get the Grades 3-8 Spelling Scope and Sequence FREE Resource:

Citations/Sources:

Here, Dr. Moats is quoting and citing Schlagal, B. (2001). Traditional, developmental, and structured language approaches to spelling: Review and recommendations, Annals of Dyslexia, 51, 147-176.

In “Current Research on Spelling Instruction,” Dr. Richard Gentry describes the key instructional procedures in his “Spelling Connections” series and cites the following researchers:
Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K.A., Marsh, E.J., Nathan, M.J., & Willingham, D.T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58.
Dr. Gentry’s References at the end of the article include many supporting studies and meta-analyses https://www.zaner-bloser.com/products/pdfs/Current_Research_on_Spelling_Instruction.pdf Yes, all instruction is reductive. The spelling pretest-study-re-test procedure takes time away from other literacy learning.

On the 2-29-2024 Pedagogy Non-Grata podcast, teacher-researcher Nate Joseph asks noted writing expert, Dr. Steve Graham, the following: “Should I still do my weekly spelling test?”

Grammar/Mechanics differentiated spelling, sor spelling, spelling lists, spelling sorts, spelling tests, Words Their Way