Hollis Scarborough is a renowned American researcher, best known for her groundbreaking contributions to the science of reading. With a background in developmental and cognitive psychology, Hollis has focused her career on understanding the relations between oral and written language over development. Although she may be known best for her Reading Rope metaphor, her contribution to the field has significantly advanced our understanding of the multifaceted skills and components that contribute to skilled reading.

Because Hollis’ rope metaphor is so helpful to use and simple to understand, it has grown in popularity since it was first drawn in 1992. Unfortunately, as with anything that gains widespread use, some misunderstandings have evolved. Some have created their own versions of the rope without publisher permission, while others have neglected copyright and made their own versions of it.

The Reading League Compass is proud to present The Reading Rope: Key Ideas Behind the Metaphor, a short presentation in which Hollis herself explains key ideas behind the Reading Rope and addresses frequently asked questions.

Please click on the following link to access the transcript for the video by Hollis (scroll halfway down the page):

The Reading League Compass

The National Center on Improving Literacy (NCIL), operated by Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education and Human Development with funding from the United States Department of Education, is a partnership among literacy experts, university researchers, and technical assistance providers from the University of Oregon, Florida State University, and RMC Research Corporation.

Our Mission

To increase access to, and use of, evidence-based approaches to screen, identify, and teach students with literacy-related disabilities, including dyslexia.

To build individual and organizational capacity to assess students’ literacy-related skill, identify students with disabilities or those at risk of disabilities, and fully implement evidence-based literacy programs and professional development.

Our Mission Serves

Parents & Families: Help your child read and write with practical ideas and strategies based on what works.

Schools & Districts: Find evidence-based approaches and effective professional development to screen, identify, and teach students with literacy-related difficulties.

State Agencies: Develop and implement state and local structures and procedures to address challenges that students with literacy-related difficulties face in learning.

The article explores the balance between teacher instruction and student engagement in literacy classrooms, drawing on the "Who's Doing the Work?" pilot project based on the book by Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris. It advocates for a shift towards increased student involvement in literacy activities, citing research that emphasizes the benefits of students actively participating in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The project aimed to decrease teacher talk and enhance student ownership of learning, resulting in increased engagement and positive feedback from participating teachers.

Key strategies recommended by the project include:

1. Engaging all students: Encouraging participation through activities like Think-Pair-Share and Everybody Writes to allow all students time to process and contribute.

2. Promoting student discourse: Creating opportunities for students to interact and respond to each other's ideas rather than engaging in one-on-one exchanges with the teacher.

3. Increasing reading time: Encouraging various reading methods such as partner reading, echo reading, and choral reading to enhance student engagement with texts.

4. Developing independence: Encouraging students to evaluate and tackle challenging parts of texts independently, instead of solely relying on teacher prompts or modeling.

The article suggests that by implementing these strategies, educators can create a more dynamic and participatory learning environment, fostering deeper engagement and skill development among students.

Intensive Intervention Practice Guide: Explicit Morphology Instruction to Improve Overall Literacy Skills in Secondary Students

This practice guide for morphology instruction in secondary students aims to enhance overall literacy skills. It focuses on teaching the structure and meaning of words, helping students understand how prefixes, suffixes, and roots contribute to word formation. By teaching morphology, educators can improve students' vocabulary, reading comprehension, and spelling. The guide emphasizes explicit instruction, word analysis, and opportunities for practice within meaningful contexts. It suggests incorporating various activities, such as word sorts, games, and mnemonic strategies, to engage students effectively. Implementing morphology instruction can significantly benefit secondary students in developing stronger literacy skills across multiple areas.

Here is what is included in the practice guide:

• What is it?
• For whom is it intended?
• How does it work?
• How can families support implementation?
• How adequate is the research knowledge base?
• How practical is it?
• How effective is it?
• What questions remain?
• Where can I learn more?
• Appendix A
• Types and Purposes of Morphology Instruction
• Example of Step 3: Teach Explicitly
• Morphology Instructional Activities
• References
  

Neurobiological studies of discourse comprehension have almost exclusively focused on narrative comprehension. However, successful engagement in modern society, particularly in educational settings, also requires comprehension with an aim to learn new information (i.e., “expository comprehension”). Despite its prevalence, no studies to date have neurobiologically characterized expository comprehension as compared with narrative. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging in typically developing children to test whether different genres require specialized brain networks. In addition to expected activations in language and comprehension areas in the default mode network (DMN), expository comprehension required significantly greater activation in the frontoparietal control network (FPN) than narrative comprehension, and relied significantly less on posterior regions in the DMN. Functional connectivity analysis revealed that, compared with narrative, the FPN robustly correlated with the DMN, and this inter-network communication was higher with increased reading expertise. These findings suggest that, relative to narrative comprehension, expository comprehension shows (1) a unique configuration of the DMN, potentially to support non-social comprehension processes, and (2) increased utilization of top-down regions to help support goal-directed comprehension processes in the DMN. More generally, our findings reveal that different types of discourse-level comprehension place diverse neural demands on the developing brain.

Self–regulated strategy development (SRSD) is an instructional framework considered to be an evidence–based practice in writing. In this article, SRSD's foundations and structure is briefly described. Then, the authors provide a summary of studies of SRSD applied across content areas, including writing, reading, mathematics, science, and social studies along with an introduction to the special issue.

The Reading Universe Taxonomy is an interactive tool that enables users to see all that's involved in reading instruction at a single glance and then unpack each skill one-by-one to understand what it is, how it's important to the reading process, and how to teach it. Reading Universe is not a scope and sequence for teaching reading.

What is the Reading Universe grid?

Each block within the Reading Universe grid is a threshold to further examination of the skill. Clicking on a block links you to an explanation of the skill, videos of exemplary instruction, activities and lesson plans, and other high-quality resources courtesy of additional links to reputable partner organizations.

Top Q&As

We've convened reading experts and skilled practitioners to provide trusted, practical, and evidence-based answers to educators' most common questions about teaching reading. This week's question:

When students mispronounce a word, when and how should I address that?

Reading Universe is produced by three premier non-profit organizations: WETA/Reading Rockets, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

The Iowa Department of Education is launching a sustained and job-embedded Science of Reading professional development opportunity statewide to support evidence-based reading instruction, improve grade-level reading proficiency, and close achievement gaps across the state. LETRS®(Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) and LETRS® for Administrators are being offered at no cost to eligible K-5 educators and administrators.

Who is eligible to register?

Lexia LETRS® for elementary educators is approved for any K-5 Iowa educator who provides reading instruction to students in a public school or public charter school. This includes:

• K-5 educators
• Special education teachers
• Title I educators
• *Instructional coaches

Lexia LETRS® for Administrators is approved for any K-5 Iowa administrator serving in a public school or public charter school. This includes:

• *Instructional coaches
• District administrators
• District curriculum leaders
• Building principals

*Instructional coaches may choose to take either course. They will not need to take both courses.