As state and federal mandates shift towards more Science of Reading aligned practices in the literacy classroom, this workshop offers practical strategies to fold in more science with current reading practices.

In this one-day workshop, we aim to clarify some of the misconceptions around Balanced Literacy practices and Structured Literacy in order to create a safe space where both philosophies can live in harmony and support educators with the best tools possible to meet the needs of all students. Finding a middle ground and opening our minds and hearts to allow for inquiry, investigation, and conversation will enrich and evolve our practice aligned with a common goal — helping children become proficient and successful life long readers.

In this session, teachers will use the strands of Language Comprehension of Scarborough’s Rope and dive into the strategic actions that readers use to process text—thinking within the text, thinking beyond the text, and thinking about the text. Being able to specifically identify the skills and strategies in each of these areas allows teachers to tap into a higher level of understanding of how their students need to learn how to process texts. Teachers can use this in-depth knowledge to plan skill-aligned interactive read alouds, develop stronger questioning for whole class and small group work, and to target specific skills in small group instruction.