Grab & Go Info
Best Practices, Strategies, & Differentiation Tips*

*This page is a place to get you started, a jumping off point - it is in NO WAY fully comprehsive
​On Oral Language

​Oral language skills impact a readers ability to decode and comprehend.  Look at your students oral language through Bloom & Lahey's CONTENT, FORM, & USE lens.

Language FORM is phonology, morphology, and syntax.

Language CONTENT is semantics, vocabulary.

Language USE is pragmatics, speaker intentions, discourse.  
On Fluency

​Dr. Tim Rasinski is the fluency GURU​
  • repeated reading,
  • echo reading,
  • paired reading,
  • radio reading,
  • flashlight reading,
  • neurological impress.

Areas of fluency

a) word level (ex. warm, warmer, warmest etc.)
b) phrase level – reading and rereading 100 common phrases byTim Rasinski.
c) continuous text – readers theater, poetry
On Vocabulary

Tier 2 words are VOCABUALRY words.*

Tier 1 words (example, home)
*Tier 2  words (example, mansion)
Tier 3 words (example, biome)

Instruction tips and strategies:
  • repeated decoding practice 
  • Use mnemonics and/or visuals 
  • Semantic mapping (Inspiration software)
  • Practice word retrieval (for working memory)
  • Use sentence starters that elicit new vocabulary words from student (also good for oral language)
​​
On Syntax

Readers need to understand how words in the story RELATE to each other.  Consider teaching these syntactic elements identified by Carlisle and Rice (2002)
  1. Function words 
  2. Cohesive ties (Reference, Lexical, Conjunction, Ellipsis,)
  3. Sentence Quality (Simple, Compound, Complex), Passive sentences
  4. Double negation 
  5. Auxiliary verbs 
On Comprehension

Listening and Reading Comprehension skill ability will differs by grade level.  Keep text exposure HIGH for increased Reading Comprehension skill ability.

The NRP finds that Good Readers do these things.....
  1. Comprehension monitoring (they know what strategy to apply when they don't understand)
  2. Cooperative Learning
  3. Use Graphic and Semantic Organizers
  4. Question Answering
  5. Question Generation
  6. Story Structure
  7. Summarization

Good Reading Behaviors
  1. Activate prior knowledge
  2. Motivated to read
  3. Monitor their understanding during reading
  4. Organize and integrate new information
  5. Think about what was read

Differentiation Ideas and Strategies (Farrell & Matthews, 2010)
  1. Content, Controlled Reading
  2. Performance requirements (how the student shows their work)
  3. Pacing 
  4. Instructional procedure (teacher to student)
  5. Multi-sensory reinforcement