Pennington Publishing Blog

Essential Study Skills

The 56 lessons inEssential Study Skills (eBook) will teach your students to “work smarter, not harder.” Often, the reason why students fail to achieve their academic potential is not because they don’t try hard enough, but because they have never learned the basic study skills necessary for success. Students who master these skills will spend less time, and accomplish more during homework and study time. Their test study will be more productive and they will get better grades. Reading comprehension and vocabulary will improve. Their writing will make more sense and essays will be easier to plan and complete. They will memorize better and forget less. Their schoolwork will seem easier and will be much more enjoyable.

Lastly, students will feel better about themselves as learners and will be more motivated to succeed. Ideal curriculum for study skill, life skill, advocacy/advisory, opportunity program classes. The easy-to-follow lesson format of 1. Personal Assessment 2. Study Skill Tips and 3. Reflection is ideal for self-guided learning and practice.

Reading Study Skills

1. Choosing and Reading the Right Books
2. Reading Habits-The Bad and the Good
3. Silent Reading Fluency and Speed Reading
4. Interactive Reading
5. Building Comprehension-The SCRIP Comprehension Strategies
6. Inferences-Reading Between the Lines
7. Marginal Annotations
8. Reading Non-Fiction Strategies
9. Skimming and Scanning

Writing Study Skills

1. Parts of Speech
2. Grammatical Sentence Openers
3. Spelling Rules
4. Punctuation Rules
5. Writing Complex Sentences
6. Writing Style Errors
7. Essay Writing Rules
8. Introductory Paragraphs
9. Body Paragraphs
10. Concluding Paragraphs

Listening/ Note-taking/Test-taking

1. Active Listening with ED IS PC
2. Note-taking
3. Test Preparation
4. Objective Test-taking Strategies
5. Matching Test-taking Strategies
6. Fill-in-the-Blank Test-taking Strategies
7. Multiple Choice Test-taking Strategies

How to Get Organized and Study Effectively

7. Study Environment and Time Management
8. The Daily Review
9. Grouping Memorization Technique
10. Association Memorization Technique
11. Linking Memorization Technique
12. Catch Words Memorization Technique
13. Catch Sentences Memorization Technique

Vocabulary Development

4. Syllabication Rules 35. Greek and Latin Word Parts
5. Context Clues

Motivation/ Goal-Setting/Attitude

7. How to Get Motivated 38. How to Avoid Procrastination
8. How to Set Goals
9. Positive Mental Attitude

Essential Study Skills Preview

Critical Thinking Openers Toolkit Preview

Your students will greatly benefit from the 40 lessons in Essential Study Skills. 128 pages

Study Skills Essential Study Skills, Mark Pennington, pennington publishing

The Grammar Toolkit (Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Worksheets) has the diagnostic assessments and corresponding remedial worksheets that upper elementary, middle school, and high school teachers need to help their students catch up to the rigorous grade level Common Core grade-level Language Standards.

Here’s what teachers are saying about the Grammar Toolkit…

This is an amazing product. It makes individualized instruction a breeze!

Shawna Pounds

Instructional Components

Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments

Comprehensive and reliable whole-class diagnostic assessments with recording matrices for efficient progress monitoring.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Worksheets

40 grammar and usage worksheets and 32 mechanics worksheets, aligned to each skill tested in the diagnostic assessments (CCSS L.1, 2). Worksheets include definitions, examples, skill practice, and writing hints about how to apply the skill within authentic writing. Students self-correct to learn from their own mistakes (also saves teacher grading time) and then complete a short formative assessment to determine skill or concept mastery. Students complete only those worksheets which the diagnostic assessments determine to be un-mastered skills. That’s assessment-based instruction.

Language Worksheets

21 language worksheets to apply the Knowledge of Language Standards (CCSS L.3). Worksheets include remedial practice in subjects and predicates, sentence types (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex), sentence structure (fragments, run-ons, and complete sentences), as well as writing domains (genre), unity, coherence, and parallelism.

Independent Editing Resources

Grammar, usage, and mechanics independent reference resources to help your students revise and self-edit their own writing. Plus writing style and editing marks references formatted for classroom posters.

Management Plan for Individualized Instruction

Every resource in the Grammar Toolkit has been designed for efficient, independent learning with the teacher serving as “writing coach.” In brief, students select and complete an un-mastered Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Worksheet (takes about 10 minutes). Next, students self-correct and self-edit from the answer sheets. After correction and editing, students take a brief formative assessment and then mini-conference with the teacher to determine whether the skill has or has not been mastered. Twice per week, 15-minute sessions will enable all of your students to “catch up” on the key Common Core Language Standards. Students, parents, and principals love seeing the measurable progress on the progress monitoring recording matrices.

*****

Pennington Publishing Grammar Programs

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics Common Core Grammar, Grammar Openers Toolkit, grammar rules, grammar workbook, grammar worksheets, Mark Pennington, pennington publishing

The Reading Fluency and Comprehension Toolkit (eBook plus Links to YouTube Modeled Readings) provides 43 expository animal fluency articles and 43 corresponding animal comprehension worksheets, along with user-friendly, no teacher prep support materials. Here’s what teachers will use in this must-have eBook toolkit:

Get 43 expository animal fluency articles, each marked with words per line to help students monitor their own fluency progress. At last! Quality fluency practice in the expository (not narrative) genre. Reading experts agree that students need extensive reading practice in the expository domain to internalize the text structure and multi-syllabic vocabulary of social studies and science textbooks. Not to mention the expository articles found on standardized tests. Yes, fluency timing charts are provided. Plus, each of the 43 fluency articles has been recorded at three different reading speeds to provide the appropriate challenge level for each of your students. This toolkit provides the YouTube links to these 129 modeled readings.

Each of the 43 articles is composed in a leveled format: the first two paragraphs are at third grade reading level, the next two are at the fifth grade reading level, and the last two are at the seventh grade reading level. Slower readers get practice on controlled vocabulary and are pushed to read at the higher reading levels, once the contextual content has been established. Faster readers are challenged by the increasingly difficult multi-syllabic vocabulary. This format is perfect for differentiated fluency instruction. Both developing readers and reading intervention students who read at a variety of reading levels will benefit from this fluency practice. What a great add-on resource for phonics-based Response to Intervention tiered instruction!

This toolkit also provides 43 corresponding animal comprehension worksheets with content-specific comprehension questions listed in the margins next to the relevant text. These low-higher order thinking questions ask readers to summarize, connect, re-think, interpret, and predict (the SCRIP comprehension strategy) to promote reader dialog with the text. Students practice self-monitoring their own reading comprehension as they read. This “talking to the text” transfers to better independent reading comprehension and retention.

The animal fluency and comprehension articles each describe the physical characteristics of the animal with a color animal photograph–no drawings or cartoon characters inappropriate for older children or teenagers. Articles contain paragraphs detailing each animal’s habitat, what the animal eats, the animal’s family, interesting facts, and the status of the species (endangered or not). The writing is engaging and students will enjoy learning about both common and uncommon animals.

Each featured animal corresponds to the colorful set of digital Animal Sound-Spelling Cards. The sounds of each animal name represent each of the phonetic components. For example, ermine, armadillo, and orca represent each of the r-controlled sound-spellings. Each of the cards contains the most common spellings of the animal card sound to reinforce the reading-spelling connection. A full set of consonant blend cards complements the Animal Sound-Spelling Cards and can be used for phonics practice and games.

Additionally, get digital comprehension posters, bookmarks, and context-clue practice.

Also included are an individual fluency assessment and a kid-tested, teacher-approved plan to differentiate fluency instruction in your classroom. Note: This Reading Fluency and Comprehension Toolkit is a “slice” of the comprehensive reading intervention curriculum, The Science of Reading Intervention Program 128 pages

Preview This Book

Check out the introductory video.

Reading Mark Pennington, pennington publishing, reading comprehension, reading fluency, Reading Fluency and Comprehension Toolkit

Teaching Grammar and Mechanics Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School Programs

Teaching Grammar and Mechanics is the comprehensive grade-level (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and high school) curriculum that helps teachers significantly improve student writing and test scores through both explicit, systematic instruction and individualized practice. Completely aligned to the Common Core Anchor Standards for Language, this full-year interactive program provides all the resources teachers need to be the best grammar teacher on campus.

Here’s what teachers are saying about the full-year Teaching Grammar and Mechanics Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and high school programs:

“The most comprehensive and easy to teach grammar and mechanics program. It’s got everything! I’m teaching each grade-level Standard in the Language Strand and students are filling in the gaps from previous grade level Standards. This program is written by teachers for teachers and their students. You can tell. Takes no prep and hardly any correction. Both veteran teachers like me and new ELA teachers will really appreciate the scripted grammar lessons.”

Robin Moore

Program Description

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (CCSS L.1,2,3) Lessons and Unit Tests

Each of the grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Teaching Grammar and Mechanics programs provides 56 (64 for high school) interactive language conventions lessons, designed for twice-per-week direct instruction in the grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics standards. The scripted lessons (perfect for the grammatically-challenged teacher) are formatted for classroom projection. Standards review, definitions and examples, practice and error analysis, simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts with writing applications, and formative assessments are woven into every 25-minute lesson.

Students annotate the full text of the lesson on accompanying student worksheets (included in the program). The worksheets include a practice section, a simple sentence diagram, a mentor text which applies the grammatical lesson focus, and a brief writing application. Students complete two sentence dictation formative assessments and then self-correct from the projected display.

Biweekly grammar, usage, and mechanics unit tests require students to define, identify, and apply their knowledge of these Language Standards in the writing context.

Individualized Assessment-based Instruction

Teaching Grammar and Mechanics also includes all resources for teachers to meet the diverse instructional needs of individual students. Perfect for English-language learners, special education, and students who need extra help! The program provides diagnostic grammar and mechanics assessments to determine the specific remedial needs of your students. The assessments are administered whole-class and mastery recording matrices allow the teacher to organize instructional materials and to monitor the progress of individual students at a glance.

Teachers individualize instruction according to the results of the diagnostic assessments with targeted grammar, usage, and mechanics worksheets. Each worksheet includes definitions, examples, writing hints, and a practice section. Students self-correct each worksheet to learn from their mistakes and then and complete a short formative assessment. The teacher corrects the formative assessment to determine mastery.

All New! Syntax in Reading and Writing

This function-based, sentence level program will help your students understand syntactic complexities in reading and apply them in more sophisticated writing.

*****

Pennington Publishing Grammar Programs

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics Common Core Grammar, grammar programs, grammar tests, grammar worksheets, Mark Pennington, Teaching Grammar and Mechanics

Differentiated Spelling Instruction

Differentiated Spelling Instruction (eBook) provides all the resources teachers need to truly differentiate spelling instruction. If you’re committed to explicit spelling instruction and individualized instruction to meet the needs of each of your students, this program is for you.

Program Overview

Everything a teacher needs to know about the program components and how to differentiate spelling instruction is found in the Learn How to Teach This Program in 10 Minutes section. It’s that easy. In brief, students take a spelling pattern pretest, then self-correct, and personalize their weekly spelling list. Teachers explain the spelling pattern. Students complete the spelling pattern word sort for homework and self-correct in class. Students study their spelling lists and take the posttest. After seven weeks of instruction, students take a formative assessment. The teacher records the student data and assigns remediation as needed. Remediation consists of 64 sound-spelling worksheets, each with a short formative assessment. Simple and easy to individualize instruction.

Program Components

• Diagnostic Spelling Assessment: a comprehensive test of each previous grade level spelling pattern to determine what students know and what they don’t know.
• Diagnostic Spelling Assessment Mastery Matrix
• 104 Remedial Sound-Spelling Worksheets Corresponding to the Diagnostic Spelling Assessment
• Weekly Diagnostic Spelling Tests
• Weekly Spelling Sort Worksheets for Each Spelling Pattern (with answers) formatted for classroom display. Students self-correct to learn from their own mistakes.
• Syllable Transformers and Syllable Blending formatted for classroom display and interactive instruction
• Syllable Worksheets (with answers) formatted for classroom display
• Four Formative Assessments (given after 7 weeks of instruction)
• Summative Assessment

Spelling Teaching Resources

• How to Study Spelling Words
• Spelling Proofreading Strategies for Stories and Essays
• Syllable Rules
• Accent Rules
• Outlaw Words
• The 450 Most Frequently Used Words
• The 100 Most Often Misspelled Words
• The 70 Most Commonly Confused Words
• Eight Great Spelling Rules, Memory Songs, and Raps (with Mp3 links)
• Spelling Review Games
• Formative and Summative Spelling Assessment Mastery Matrices

Why Other Spelling Programs are Ineffective and Why Differentiated Spelling Instruction (DSI) Makes Sense

• Others use “themed” spelling word lists, grouping words by such themes as animals, months, holidays, or colors.
• DSI uses developmental spelling patterns for its word lists, providing sequential, research-based orthographic instruction.
• Others use practice worksheets that focus on rote memorization, such as word searches, fill-in the-blanks, or crossword puzzles.
• DSI provides spelling sorts/word parts worksheets to help students practice recognition and application of the spelling patterns.
• Others de-emphasize structural analysis.
• DSI emphasizes word study: syllables, accents, morphemes, inflections, spelling rules, pronunciation, and derivational influences.
• Others do not integrate vocabulary instruction.
• DSI integrates homonyms, common Greek and Latin prefixes, roots, and suffixes, and other linguistic influences.
• Others minimize the reading-spelling connection.
• DSI reinforces the decoding-encoding connection with an instructional scope and sequence aligned with systematic explicit phonics instruction. The DSI program includes five years of seamless spelling instruction (Grades 4 through 8)—perfect for grade-level classes, combination classes, and flexible homeschool instruction.
• Others ignore spelling irregularities.
• DSI includes “Exceptions” throughout the program, providing problem-solving strategies that build student (and teacher) confidence in the English orthographic spelling system.
• Others use spelling tests solely as summative assessments.
• DSI uses spelling tests as diagnostic and formative instruments to help teachers differentiate instruction. Recording matrices enable teachers to keep track of mastered and un-mastered spelling patterns for each student—simple record-keeping and minimal paperwork.
• Others provide one-size-fits-all instruction.
• DSI provides the resources for true differentiated instruction from remedial to grade-level to accelerated spellers.
• Others use visual-only spelling strategies.
• DSI uses multi-sensory instructional practice, including songs, raps, games and phonological awareness activities—perfect for students with auditory processing deficits and a “must” for effective Response to Intervention (RtI) instruction.
• Others have no writing-spelling connection.
• DSI requires students to develop weekly Personal Spelling Lists that include commonly misspelled words from their own writing.
• Others provide no review activities for unit spelling tests.
• DSI provides ample review activities, including Word Jumbles for each sound-spelling pattern, web-based songs and raps, and entertaining games.
• Others take either inordinate teacher preparation or require too much class time.
• DSI is “teacher-friendly” and requires only minimal prep time. And the flexible DSI resources will not eat up excessive instructional minutes.
• Others are overly expensive and require consumable workbooks.
• DSI requires only one worksheet each lesson, per student—truly economical.

Differentiated Spelling Instruction is a “slice” of the comprehensive grades 4-8 Grammar, Mechanics, Spelling, and Vocabulary programs. Please check out the product descriptions here.

Please check out our introductory video.

Differentiated Spelling Instruction Grade 4: Preview This Book

Differentiated Spelling Instruction Grade 5: Preview This Book

Differentiated Spelling Instruction Grade 6: Preview This Book

Differentiated Spelling Instruction Grade 7: Preview This Book

Differentiated Spelling Instruction Grade 8: Preview This Book

Spelling/Vocabulary Common Core Spelling, differentiated spelling instruction, Mark Pennington, spelling worksheets

The Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit (eBook) provides systematic, efficient, and

Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit

effective vocabulary instruction aligned to the Common Core State Standards. If you are looking for a comprehensive program to teach each of the grade-level Common Core Vocabulary Standards, the Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit is just what your students need. Each grade-level grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 program includes the following resources:

Vocabulary Worksheets

The 56 Vocabulary Worksheets include Multiple Meaning Words and Context Clues (L.4.a.); Greek and Latin Word Parts (L.4.a.); Language Resources (L.4.c.d.); Figures of Speech (L.5.a.); Word Relationships (L.5.b.); Connotations (L.5.c.); and Academic Language Words (L.6.0). Students learn ten Tier Two and Tier Three words (the words recommended in Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects) each week.

Each vocabulary word in the Vocabulary Worksheets has been carefully chosen from the most common Greek and Latin roots and affixes, the research-based Academic Word List, and the Tier Two and Three Words which are domain-specific to the Common Core grade-level English-Language Arts Standards. Answers are provided and an instructional scope and sequence is included at the end of each grade-level program.

Vocabulary Study Cards

Vocabulary game cards are provided for each of the weekly paired lessons for whole-class review, vocabulary games, and individual practice. Print back-to-back and have students fold to study.

Vocabulary Tests

Bi-weekly Vocabulary Tests assess both memorization and application. The first section of each test is simple matching. The second section of each test requires students to apply the vocabulary in the writing context. Answers follow.

Syllable Blending, Syllable Worksheets, and Derivatives Worksheets

Whole class syllable blending “openers” will help your students learn the rules of structural analysis, including proper pronunciation, syllable division, accent placement, and derivatives. Each “opener” includes a Syllable Worksheet and a Derivatives Worksheet for individual practice. Answers follow.

Context Clues Strategies

Students learn the FP’S BAG SALE approach to learning the meanings of unknown words through surrounding context clues. Context clue worksheets will help students master the SALE Context Clue Strategies.

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use Resources

Greek and Latin word parts lists, vocabulary review games, vocabulary steps, and semantic spectrums provide additional vocabulary instructional resources.

Students who complete each of the Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit Grades 4–8 grade-level programs will have practiced and learned much of the Academic Word Corpus and all of the skills of vocabulary acquisition. These students will have gained a comprehensive understanding of academic language and will be well-equipped to apply the skills of context clues strategies and structural analysis to read well and write with precision.

Each of the Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit grade-level programs is a “slice” of the comprehensive Teaching the Language Grades 4–8 programs.

Please check out our introductory video:

As a reference for our Pennington Publishing customers, following are previews of each of our grades 4-8 Common Core Vocabulary Toolkits. Please visit our Pennington Publishing Website for complete book descriptions.

Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit Grade 4: Preview This Book

Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit Grade 5: Preview This Book

Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit Grade 6: Preview This Book

Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit Grade 7: Preview This Book

Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit Grade 8: Preview This Book

Spelling/Vocabulary Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit, Mark Pennington, pennington publishing

As teachers have focused on the reading and writing strands of the Common Core State Standards the past three years, the Language Strand Standards have been given short shrift. As the testing data from the 2015 SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium), the PAARC (Partnership of Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers), and other state tests has been or soon will be released, teachers and district personnel are identifying the instructional gaps and rediscovering why a balanced literacy program, including explicit instruction in grammar, usage, spelling, and vocabulary is so essential.

As of August 30, 2015, full or preliminary scores have been released for these states: Connecticut, Idaho, Missouri, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. Each participated in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). The second testing group, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PAARC) has not released any results. Several other states that developed their own exams tied to the standards have been released. Many states have adopted a cafeteria model, using some of the two consortia online assessments plus their own paper ad pencil achievement tests.

A Brief Case Study

In Elk Grove Unified School District, the fifth largest school district in California, teachers have received extensive training, including over a week of all day sessions at the district office in the Reading (Literature and Informational) and Writing Strands. Teachers have learned and practiced Close Reading strategies, text dependent questions, and analyzed district-created writing rubrics in the narrative, argumentative, and informational/explanatory Writing Standards. A passing nod has been given to the Speaking/Listening Strand, but only minimal professional development has been delivered in the Language Strand. Until now.

Elk Grove Unified and all districts in California have now received the assessment results for the CAASPP (California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress) mix of online and paper-pencil assessments, including the online SBAC English language arts/literacy (ELA) tests. The district results? Not nearly as good as expected for this high performing school district.

Parents will soon be receiving the CAASP test results.

CAASP Test Results for Parents

Elk Grove is not alone. At Los Angeles Unified School District, Cynthia Lim, executive director of the Office of Data and Accountability, said the preliminary results received by the nation’s second largest district are “lower than what people are used to seeing.” Christine Amario AP

The current mantra? “It’s just a baseline year for us.”

The game plan to improve overall and sub-group scores? Focus on the Language Strand.

The Big Picture

It’s the Language Strand that provides the tools of language, that is the grammar, usage, spelling, and vocabulary that makes reading and writing intelligible. Now as teachers and district personnel, such as in Elk Grove Unified, have begun to deconstruct what the Common Core tests actually assess, it is evident that the whole is made up of many parts. Part to whole instruction is making a comeback.

In the words of the Common Core authors:

To build a foundation for college and career readiness in language, students must gain control over many conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics as well as learn other ways to use language to convey meaning effectively. They must also be able to determine or clarify the meaning of grade-appropriate words encountered through listening, reading, and media use; come to appreciate that words have nonliteral meanings, shadings of meaning, and relationships to other words; and expand their vocabulary in the course of studying content. The inclusion of Language standards in their own strand should not be taken as an indication that skills related to conventions, effective language use, and vocabulary are unimportant to reading, writing, speaking, and listening; indeed, they are inseparable from such contexts. http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/CCRA/L/

When most teachers and district personnel think grammar, usage, spelling, and vocabulary, they think about writing. The performance-based writing assessments evaluate students’ abilities to 1. Develop ideas 2. Organize their writing and 3. Craft their grammar and language usage to narrate, argue, or inform. Teachers have done a wonderful job on 1 and 2. Students now understand the difference between the writing domains (genre). However, as the 2015 SBAC and PAARC assessment results show so clearly, it’s the ability to use the tools of language that our students lack.

But these relative weaknesses are not solely found in the performance-based writing components. The language tools are critically important in every testing component. It’s time to give attention to these tools.

The author of this article, Mark Pennington, has written the assessment-based Teaching the Language

Grammar, Mechanics, Spelling, and Vocabulary Grades 4-8 Programs

Strand Grades 4-8 programs to teach the Common Core grammar, usage, mechanics, spelling, and vocabulary Standards. Diagnostic assessments and targeted worksheets help your students catch up while they keep up with rigorous grade-level direct instruction.

Grammar/Mechanics, Spelling/Vocabulary, Writing CAASP, Common Core Grammar, Common Core State Standards, Common Core Test Results, Common Core Vocabulary, grammar books, grammar programs, grammar teaching resources, Language Strand, Mark Pennington, PAARC, SBAC, Smarter Balanced, teaching resources, Teaching the Language Strand

SCRIP Comprehension Cues

Readers can develop good reading habits by integrating specific cueing strategies into their reading. These cueing strategies serve as a set of tasks to perform while reading to maintain concentration and determine the meaning of text. Students can predict to increase comprehension with both narrative and expository texts.

The author of this article, Mark Pennington, has developed five cueing strategies, using the SCRIP acronym, which work equally well with expository and narrative text. The SCRIP acronym stands for Summarize, Connect, Re-think, Interpret, and Predict.

Both good and struggling readers can practice these cueing strategies to improve comprehension. Despite what many teachers have learned, reading is not a natural process; it needs to be taught, and not just caught. Teaching students to interact with the text. the SCRIP strategies will help them better understand and better remember what they read.

Good readers learn how to carry on an internal dialog while they read. Many readers consider reading to be a passive activity in which the author talks to the attentive listener. Reading research supports the notion that reading should be active with an ongoing dialogue between reader and author. Up to 50% of comprehension is what the reader brings to the text in terms of prior knowledge. Follow this link here to learn how to teach developing readers to carry on this conversation.

Predict to Increase Comprehension

The fifth cueing strategy in the SCRIP comprehension strategies is Predict. Predict means “to think about what they are going to read based on clues from the reading. It is an ongoing process that actively engages the reader in two ways: The reader’s mind is a jump ahead, trying to figure out what is coming next (making new predictions), while at the same time the reader is revising and refining the old predictions” (Guisinger).

Types of Clues that Inform Prediction for Narrative and Expository Text

Text Structure and Genre

Knowing the structure of a story can help readers make informed predictions. With narrative text, knowledge of the elements of plot: basic situation, problem-conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution will inform predictions. With informational/explanatory or argumentative text, knowledge of paragraph structure: topic sentence/claims, evidence/reasons, analysis/commentary and/or counterargument/refutations will help the reader more accurately predict the writer’s train of thought or line of argument.

Vocabulary

Paying close attention to transition words and phrases will help the reader make specific predictions. Transitions signal the development of ideas including the following purposes: definition, example, explanation, analysis, comparison, contrast, cause-effect, conclusion, addition, numerical, sequence.

Literary Devices

Recognizing literary devices such as foreshadowing, tone, and mood can assist the reader in making accurate predictions. The writer’s style gives important clues to what will happen next.

Check out the other SCRIP Comprehension Strategies: summary, connect , re-think, and interpret.

Because teaching the Interpret cueing strategy is the focus of this article, let’s work through a teaching script to teach this Predict cueing strategy.

“Predict means to make an educated guess about what will happen or be said next in the text. A good prediction uses the clues presented in a story, article, or textbook to make a logical guess that makes sense. Good readers check their predictions with what actually happens or is said next.”

“When you reach a part of a story, article, or textbook in which a clue to understanding what will happen next appears, pause to predict what will happen as a result of that clue. Your prediction might be what happens immediately after the clue, later in the reading, or at the end of the reading.”

“Continue to read with your prediction at the back of your mind. If additional, related clues appear, adjust your prediction to reflect these clues. Aim at a specific prediction, not a general one.”

“For example, you would probably not be surprised by a fortune in a fortune cookie which reads ‘Your life will have many ups and downs’ because the prediction is so general and could probably apply to everyone who gets that same fortune. However, if you open a fortune cookie to read ‘Tomorrow at 3:10 p.m. you will get a call from someone you haven’t heard from in a long time’ you would be very interested in checking to see it the prediction comes true because of how specific the fortune reads.”

“Let’s take a look at a fairy tale that many of you will have read or heard about and practice how to make and check on predictions.”

Sam and Friends Phonics Books

Here is a one-page version of “The Three Little Pigs” for you to download, print, and distribute to your students. Have students read, break the reading into sections, and complete the summaries, connections, re-thinks, and interprets in their heads. Direct students to answer the Interpret questions. Share out the student answers. Check out a YouTube video demonstration of the Predict Comprehension Strategy, using “The Three Little Pigs“ fairy tale to illustrate this strategy. The storyteller first reads the fairy tale without comment. Next,  the story is read once again as a think-aloud with interruptions to show how readers should predict sections of the reading and check the accuracy of their predictions as they read to monitor and build comprehension.

Get the SCRIP Comprehension Cues FREE Resource:

The Science of Reading Intervention Program

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Word Recognition includes explicit, scripted instruction and practice with the 5 Daily Google Slide Activities every reading intervention student needs: 1. Phonemic Awareness and Morphology 2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling 3. Sounds and Spellings (including handwriting) 4. Heart Words Practice 5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (decodables). Plus, digital and printable sound wall cards and speech articulation songs. Print versions are available for all activities. First Half of the Year Program (55 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension resources are designed for students who have completed the word recognition program or have demonstrated basic mastery of the alphabetic code and can read with some degree of fluency. The program features the 5 Weekly Language Comprehension Activities: 1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts 2. Academic Language, Greek and Latin Morphology, Figures of Speech, Connotations, Multiple Meaning Words 3. Syntax in Reading 4. Reading Comprehension Strategies 5. Literacy Knowledge (Narrative and Expository). Second Half of the Year Program (30 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based “second chance” instructional resources. The program includes 13 comprehensive assessments and matching instructional resources to fill in the yet-to-be-mastered gaps in phonemic awareness, alphabetic awareness, phonics, fluency (with YouTube modeled readings), Heart Words and Phonics Games, spelling patterns, grammar, usage, and mechanics, syllabication and morphology, executive function shills. Second Half of the Year Program (25 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program BUNDLE  includes all 3 program components for the comprehensive, state-of-the-art (and science) grades 4-adult full-year program. Scripted, easy-to-teach, no prep, no need for time-consuming (albeit valuable) LETRS training or O-G certification… Learn as you teach and get results NOW for your students. Print to speech with plenty of speech to print instructional components.

Literacy Centers, Reading, Study Skills Mark Pennington, Prediction, reading comprehension, reading comprehension strategies, Sam and Friends Phonics Books, Teaching Reading Strategies