How Storyworks 3 Aligns with the Science of Reading
How Storyworks 3 Aligns with the Science of Reading
The science of reading, or the a body of research that explains how proficient readers learn to read, is not only about phonics. Skilled readers must also have language comprehension skills to make sense of what they’re reading.
Language comprehension is made up of five key elements—background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge. When teachers use Storyworks 3®, they give children critical support in language comprehension. Paired with explicit and systematic phonics instruction, Storyworks 3 provides the perfect ingredients to boost your reading outcomes and keep your instruction aligned with the science of reading.
With Storyworks 3®, educators can:
Build Background Knowledge
Background knowledge is what a reader knows about a certain topic. The more the reader knows, the better they can understand what they’re reading.
- Students gain valuable knowledge by reading about and discussing a wide variety of social studies and science topics in each of our six 32-page issues.
- Background Builder slideshows provide essential knowledge about a topic before reading.
- Our inspiring Video Read-Aloud brings our nonfiction feature to life with narration and visuals, helping students to understand and envision unfamiliar references in the article.
- Articles that connect to each other in each issue help students deepen their knowledge of a topic and to better understand each article.
- Our special collections of articles around a single topic or theme, curated from our rich archives, let classes dig deeper into an area of interest.
- Our meaningful extension activities give students the opportunity to reinforce and apply knowledge they’ve learned.
Grow Robust Vocabularies
Robust vocabularies help kids understand the words they encounter while reading.
- Key academic and content area vocabulary words are highlighted in every major feature; our tools make explicit instruction easy for teachers.
- Our vocabulary slideshows, which include visuals, audio pronunciations, kid-friendly definitions, and sample sentences, preview important words to know.
- Vocabulary Skill Builders help classes examine morphology and engage in deep discussions about how words work.
- Audio read-alouds help students learn to recognize new words by bridging oral and written language.
Practice Language Structure
To read skillfully, students must understand how language is structured, including the syntax, or how words are logically ordered in a sentence.
- Every issue of Storyworks 3 models age- appropriate syntax.
- Writing prompts with all major features give students many opportunities to compose and revise written work, which helps them learn and practice using language structures.
- Opinion-writing kits along with the debate guide students to use the language structures necessary for academic writing.
- Paragraph-writing templates with the mini read reinforce for students the structure of a paragraph and how the sentences within it fit together.
- Our infographic includes a letter-writing activity and contest as an additional way to practice using language structures in an authentic writing activity.
Apply Verbal Reasoning
Reading requires understanding not only what’s written in a text, but also figuring out what’s implied and interpreting figurative language. Verbal reasoning skills allow students to make connections yielding to comprehension.
- By building background knowledge, Storyworks 3 helps give readers the reference points they need to make inferences.
- Close-reading questions and skills activities often focus on inferences, helping students to build the habit of thinking about what’s not stated in a text.
- Fiction and poetry selections introduce students to figurative language, including metaphors, similes, personification, and imagery.
Expand Literacy Knowledge
Literacy knowledge involves navigating the nuts and bolts of texts, like what to expect from different genres and text structures.
- As a multigenre magazine, Storyworks 3 introduces students to the traits of narrative nonfiction, informational text, fiction, drama, poetry, and more.
- Storyworks 3 includes a variety of text structures, including compare and contrast, problem and solution, cause and effect, description, and sequence of events.
- Readers gain invaluable practice navigating text features, such as headlines, subheads, photos, captions, and maps, and connecting them to information found in the body of the text.
To print the Science of Reading alignment, click here. For more information, call (800) 387-1437 or email [email protected]