Copyright © 2012 Pearson, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.1

Text Scaffolding

Introduction

This guide describes how text is scaffolded in Literacy Navigator.

Background

The Common Core State Standards require students to climb a staircase of increasing text complexity as they advance through the grades. The Common Core State Standards also require informational texts to constitute a significant proportion of students’ reading. The design of Literacy Navigator helps students meet these two goals. In Literacy Navigator, students read high-interest selections about content-related topics, particularly in the areas of life science, ecology, and conservation. In each of the five levels of the program, students build the skills necessary for comprehending increasingly sophisticated informational texts.

Content Knowledge

Literacy Navigator is based on the premise that content knowledge plays an important role in reading development. Current research in reading emphasizes the relationship between relevant background knowledge and comprehension. Each module in Literacy Navigator focuses on an overarching concept related to science or social studies to help students build relevant background knowledge. Lessons require students to apply knowledge from previous readings and synthesize information to expand their understanding. The program helps students store content in long-term memory so that it becomes working knowledge.

Copyright © 2012 Pearson, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.2

Text Scaffolding

During Literacy Navigator instruction, teachers develop students’ content knowledge and comprehension by scaffolding text through the use of Think-Alouds and discussion. The program embeds writing activities in each lesson for students to show their comprehension and content-area learning.

Scaffolding for Text Complexity

Literacy Navigator readings are selected and organized to help students develop their reading comprehension skills. By the end of each Foundations module, students have been exposed to increasingly complex language and text structures. The Foundations module is made up of thirty lessons that delve into a topic with an overarching idea—for example Environmental Citizenship in Level A. The level of text becomes progressively more difficult from the first passage to the last passage with easier passages spread throughout so the student maintains confidence and can apply strategies. Later passages build upon content from earlier lessons— developing and reinforcing students’ mental model. This progression can be seen by reading the excerpts below from Lesson 4, Lesson 8, and Lesson 16 in the Student Reader.

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Scaffolding for Comprehension

Students build background knowledge with the first passage and continually add to it as they read subsequent passages. Students, rather than teachers, provide the background knowledge when they encounter a new reading. Research indicates that students transfer the content, skills, and strategies they learn from reading an informational text to selections that they encounter in the future. The Student Readers provide space between the lines as well as wide margins so that students have opportunities to engage with the text and demonstrate their comprehension during each lesson. They can refer to their notes as they work with the future readings in the level.

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Teacher’s Role

The teacher’s role is to assess how students are comprehending text. Teachers ask specific, scaffolded questions that progress throughout the lesson during Work Time, Guided Practice, and Reflection. Teachers monitor graphic organizers as students complete them to see if the students accurately comprehend what they are reading. Instruction focuses on linking ideas for students—for example teaching connecting words and syntax used in a reading. Informational text gives students an opportunity to encounter domain-specific Tier 3 vocabulary, such as the word photosynthesis in Level C Habitats. Instruction for Tier 2 vocabulary, words that students will encounter the most in complex text—is also provided. The lesson plans guide teachers to note these words as they are repeated in readings throughout the course of a unit.

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Gradual Release of Responsibility

Instruction begins with the teacher modeling or thinking aloud to demonstrate how to apply target reading strategies. The teacher then gradually releases responsibility for strategy use to the students. Students work together to share their thinking and practice strategies for building a Textbase and Mental Model. Finally, students work independently to organize the information they have learned from the reading. This creates a supported, scaffolded model of instruction for teaching comprehension of informational text.

Review

This guide discussed how Literacy Navigator’s reading selections expose students to scaffolded text that gradually increases in difficultly. It described how teachers practice focused modeling and scaffolded questioning. It also discussed how the program uses text scaffolding to help students build transferrable background knowledge and comprehension strategies to use with informational text.