Amanda Hetzel

EDUC 6400
12/15/21
Materials Analysis Take Home Exam 2
A. Vocabulary Instruction
1. Briefly describe the approach to teaching vocabulary used in these materials.
a) What types of teaching/learning activities are suggested in the teacher’s lesson plans or
student materials?
● Lesson 2:
○ n/a
● Lesson 3
○ n/a
● Lesson 11
○ Students will learn how and why to summarize a story (students will be
doing this to understand and remember). This will be done using the 5 Ws
(who, did what, where, when, why).
● Lesson 13
○ Interactive vocabulary preview (teacher lesson plans p.101)
■ The teacher will write words and phrases on the board
■ The teacher will say the words and have students repeat them
■ Finally, the teacher will define the words to prepare students to
read and comprehend
○ Students will preview vocabulary as a whole class using side 33
○ As the teacher goes over the interactive vocabulary preview they should
allow students to stop and jot, words and phrases in their workbook p. 55
● Lesson 14
○ Students will be using base words to clarify and understand words that
they do not understand or know
○ The teacher will “frame the new idea (we look to context to clarify when
there’s no helpful base word)” (teacher lesson plans, p. 109)
■ Students will be following along using workbook pg. 56
■ Slides 34 and 35 will be presented on the board
○ The teacher will talk through answers about the following, according to
the teacher lesson plans on page 109:
■ “Outcast” has a helpful word base
■ The context for “demarcation” and “ridicule: includes a direct
definition
■ For “aggrieved” we just have an example. Can students think of a
synonym?
○ For homework, students will be working on an assignment called More on
Clarifying
■ During this, students will be practicing their clarifying skills with
the words given to them in workbook p. 59
■ In order for students to understand how to complete this
homework, the teacher will go over the first word “coerced” with
the students

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 ● Lesson 15
○ Students will review homework of More on Clarifying and confirm the
contexts
○ Students will learn that an index can help them use and understand a book
○ For homework, students will complete another Clarifying assignment
workbook p. 63
■ Students will learn that they are able to find clues about a word’s
meaning in the next sentence
■ The teacher will walk through “ample” as a class so that students
will understand what they have to do for the homework assignment
● The teacher will project slides 37-38 for students to follow
along with their workbook hw p. 63
■ Students will be reading the text supplied for them on this
homework page to look for the words and their meanings
b) What kinds of words have been selected for explicit vocabulary instruction?
● Lesson 2:
○ Speed (pace), expression
● Lesson 3
○ n/a
● Lesson 11
○ Summarize, index
● Lesson 13
○ Respect (p.21), outcast (p.21), loner (p. 22), un-insultable (p.29) (student
workbook, p. 55)
■ Vocabulary word pages correspond with pages in the novel
● Lesson 14
○ Outcast (using context to find definition), “demarcation” and “ridicule”
have direct definitions within the text, aggrieved
○ Homework vocabulary using clarifying: coerced, self-assertion, odious,
confidantes, agonize, staunch
● Lesson 15
○ Index (not explicit vocabulary, although will help students)
○ Clarifying HW: ample, emancipated, fret, blotches, disheartened
■ These words are seen in the text given to them above the chart on
workbook p. 63

**lesson 2,3,11 do not give explicit instruction, but the words that I have chosen are vital
for students to understand and apply towards their learning
c) Why do you think the authors of these materials may have chosen these kinds of
words?
The author chooses these words for students to learn and understand because they are
vital parts of understanding literacy. The words seen in lessons 2, 3, and 11 are not explicit words
per se, although as essential for understanding literacy. Each of these words builds upon each
other throughout students' years in school and will constantly be used. Some of the vocabulary
words (shown in lessons 13, 14, and 15) are laid out for instruction are also content-specific
words that students need to learn to understand the text that they are reading.

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2. Research-based practices?
● How does this instruction match or diverge from ideas about vocabulary instruction
provided in Class 11 readings? Be sure to cite class readings to back up your points.
Match Diverge

“In the Lexical Quality Hypothesis, Perfetti (2007) provided a useful perspective on
vocabulary development by specifying the word features that characterize high-quality entries
in a reader’s mental dictionary, or lexicon.” (Kucan, 2012, p. 360)

● The words chosen for students by this

curriculum will help students build
upon their mental dictionaries
● These words were specifically chosen
by the curriculum to further students
learning

“Another aspect of a high-quality representation is its orthographic representation, or spelling.

Linking the pronunciation of a word to its spelling is what happens during reading.” (Kucan,
2012, p. 360-361)

● Teachers will be writing and reviewing

important vocabulary words that
students will see in their reading
● The teacher will address these words
prior to students reading them by
presenting them to the class on the
board by spelling them and saying the
correct pronunciation to the students

“Teachers can also deliberately enhance the verbal environment in their classrooms by
choosing books and poems to read aloud that emphasize the impact of surprisingly fresh and
imaginative language to describe and explain.” (Kucan, 2012, p. 361)

● The curriculum chooses these books ● Since this is a very organized

(ie Middle School Confidential) to
have students learn and expand their
vocabulary knowledge
● Students will be learning different
skills on gaining an understanding of
different vocabulary words (ie
Clarifying activities, looking at bases
of words)
curriculum, it does not allow for the
teacher to choose their own readings
for the class that they believe their
students can learn from, based on
interests
● If there was extra time maybe teachers
could choose read aloud that they
believe that their students can learn
vocabulary from as well as be
interested in

“Dictionaries can be useful, but looking up words in a dictionary will not support students in
developing their own rich mental lexicons…. According to the Lexical Quality Hypothesis

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(Perfetti, 2007), effective vocabulary instruction targets not only what words mean, but also
how words work.” (Kucan, 2012, p. 361)

● Students are reading the words in ● Students are not given dictionaries to
context and learning their meanings help them define vocabulary words
from reading further into the text using that they are learning from the texts
what they have learned from clarifying
activities and looking at the bases of
words
● Students are taught to look to the
index, as well to help them define
words

“All of the work that students do related to the phonology, orthography, morphology, and
syntax of words contribute to their knowledge of word meanings, but the foundation for
high-quality lexical representations is built by engaging students in carefully designed
instructional sequences that focus directly on word meanings.” (Kucan, 2012, p. 363)

● Students are taking all the skills that
they are learning through activities to
help them find the meanings of words
that they may not know or words that
are designated as vocabulary words
● These activities are strategically
aligned in the teacher lesson plan to
further develop student vocabulary
skills
● Teachers only give the direct meaning
of words when students are unable to
figure out the meaning
● Teachers go over the homework that
involves vocabulary to make sure that
all students understand
○ If students are struggling, the
teacher may want to further
instruct and practice with
students

“Planning for a vocabulary lesson sequence involves the following:

1. Preparing student-friendly explanations for the words; that is, consulting dictionaries
(e.g., Sinclair et al., 2005) and crafting an explanation of a word’s meaning that makes
sense to students
2. Designing meaningful activities for engaging students in using the words in a variety of
contexts
3. Developing assessments that gauge students’ depth of knowledge about the words”
(Kucan, 2012, p. 364)

● Teacher is given student-friendly ● While students are learning

definitions in teacher lesson plans for
explicit vocabulary instruction
● Student workbook has meaningful
activities for students to engage and
further their learning of vocabulary
vocabulary through STARI, it is not
the sole purpose of the lesson.
Students will be completing other
activities
○ Each lesson is not explicitly
for straight vocabulary
instruction

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 ● There are no assessments given for
teachers to look at to “gauge students’
depth of knowledge about the words.”

B. Fluency Instruction
1. Briefly describe the approach to teaching fluency used in these materials. What types of
teaching/learning activities are suggested in the teacher’s lesson plans or student materials?
What kinds of texts are being used for fluency instruction?
● Lesson 2
○ The teacher will explain to students what fluent reading is, as they follow along
(slide 2, workbook pg. 6)
■ “What is fluent reading?
● Reading fluently includes reading out loud
○ At a good speed
○ Getting all the words right
○ With phrasing that shows an expression
○ With expression and emphasis”
○ Students will listen to audio track 1 and follow along with the text on workbook
pg.6 and then students will rate the reader in their workbooks
■ *students will do the same for audio tracks 2 and 3
● Tracks 1-3 is a story about “Erica started at a new school…”
(teacher lesson plans pg. 13)
■ “Fluent reading means reading at a good pace- not too slow, and not too
fast” (Teacher lesson plans pg. 13)
○ Next students will rate accuracy and repeat this procedure on workbook p. 7 with
audio tracks 4-6
■ These tracks may need to be played more than once for students to hear
each part
■ This story is about bullying and students should be following along as the
audio is being played to them
○ Finally, students will rate expression and meaning on workbook pg. 8 listening to
audio tracks 7-9
■ Students will be following along with the text that is provided for them on
pg. 8 in their workbook as the audio is being played for them
○ Students will debrief as a whole class what goes into fluent reading based on what
they had just learned
○ Most of these activities include students listening to a reading and then filling out
charts in their student workbooks
○ Next students will learn how fluency connects to the meaning
■ During this time students will preview questions that they will have to
answer on workbook pg. 9-10
○ The teacher will explain to students that fluent reading helps to convey meaning

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 ■ “When a passage is read fluently, the reader shows good understanding.
As we listen to fluent reading, we get the meaning, too.” (Teacher’s lesson
plan, pg. 13)
○ Students will take part in learning this while listening to tracks 10 & 11 and
answering the questions on their workbook p.10. During a turn and talk students
will discuss with each other which reader made the passage easier to understand.
They will share their own thoughts on how fluency can help with comprehension
as well. (teacher lesson plans pg. 15)
■ Both tracks 10 & 11 readings are provided for students to follow along
with in their workbook on pg. 9. The story is the culmination of all the
previous except they read during part 1 in their workbook pgs. 6-8
● Lesson 3
○ The teacher will begin to introduce to students a fluency routine that students will
be using from here on out.
○ The teacher will “Ask students to think about becoming faster, more accurate,
more expressive readers ( in other words, more fluent). how will this help them in
school, and outside of school?” (teacher lesson plans p.19)
○ The teacher will connect the student's fluency practice in which it will overall
improve their fluency.
○ Students will be introduced to the fluency workbooks and the key features of
STARI fluency work
■ Fluency topics will be connected to unit themes
■ The procedure will occur over two days and partners will work together to
help each other
■ Overall fluency will improve over time
○ Fluency routine to be introduced
■ Day 1:
● Part 1: students will silently read with the “What’s Your Birth
Order?” Fluency passage on workbook p. 13
● Part 2: First timed read
○ The teacher will demonstrate the first timed read with the
same passage, count WPM, and finish reading the passage
aloud. The teacher will then select one student to play the
partner role by keeping time
○ Passage will be presented to students on slide 9 as well as
in their workbook on pg. 13 & 14
○ Students will be reading for one minute and then put a
double slash // after the last word read
■ Student partner will then set the timer for a minute
and say go for the teacher to read out loud and
follow this procedure
○ The teacher will then count out the words per minute using
slide 9 and write the WPM on the top right corner of the
page.
○ The teacher will finish reading the passage out loud

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 ○ The teacher will then allow students to do this on their own
with a partner
■ Give partner pairing a spot in the room for fluency
work
■ Have partners sit close so their voices can be low
■ Remind students to record WPM when finished
reading
● Part 3: Comprehension and discussion
○ Answer questions on the bottom of the workbook pg. 14 as
a group and the teacher will model looking back in the text
to find the answers. Reminding students that discussing the
passage helps build fluency.
○ The teacher will show slide 10 the fluency change and
model transferring the WPM record from the top right
corner of workbook p. 14 to the Developing fluency,
fluency chart on workbook p.15
○ Recap with students using slides 3 and 4
○ Review fluency with students and ask students to talk about what it means using
slide 2 to remind students of the components elements (speed, accuracy, phrasing,
expression, and emphasis)
○ The teacher should collect student workbook pages 15-16 and assign each student
a leveled fluency workbook
● Lesson 11
○ Students will be practicing their fluency skills by reading the stories during this
lesson. The first story students will read is “Happy to Be Herself” in their
workbooks pg. 47. They will then as a class reread the story “Blackmail” that they
started in a previous lesson. During this time the teacher will model good fluency
skills that they want their students to use when they are reading independently or
with partners (Teacher Lesson plan, p. 87).
● Lesson 13
○ Students will be practicing fluency both independently and through partner
reading
○ “Working in partners lets students practice reading strategies more autonomously”
(teacher lesson plans, p. 101)
○ Students will be reading chapter 2 of “Middle School Confidential”
○ Students will be using “day two activities with the second set of fluency
passages” (teacher lesson plans, p. 103)
○ Students will participate in a partner discussion and share their fluency partner
discussion
■ “What was the question? What’s one interesting thing someone said?”
● Lesson 14
○ Read aloud p. 22 of Middle School Confidential
○ Students will read aloud the speech bubbles quotes on p.23 of Middle School
Confidential

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 ■ During this time students will also be filling out their workbook p. 57 and
turning and talking with other students about what they agree or disagree
with
● Lesson 15
○ Objectives stated on Teacher Lesson Plan p.113
■ “Demonstrate sufficient reading fluency to support comprehension by
completing the Day One fluency routine”
○ Common Core Literacy Standards (Teacher Lesson Plans, p. 113)
■ “ELA Standard RF 4: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to
support comprehension”
○ Students will complete partner fluency work using the day one activities (all four
parts) with the third set of fluency passages (teacher lesson plans, p. 115)
○ Following this, students will debrief fluency
■ The teacher will ask a few students to share their passage title and a quick
summary of the content of the passage
○ Depending on the teacher's discretion, students may read aloud “What I Like
About Myself” on p. 23 of Middle School Confidential to help them fill out
workbook p.61
○ Students will then work in partners to continue practicing their fluency while
reading the comic strip sequence on p. 24 and 27-28 of Middle School
Confidential
■ During this partner reading each partner will need to read for multiple
characters (Teacher lesson plan, p. 117)
○ Students will read in partners Zoe’s story (Middle School Confidential, p. 70) and
Sean’s story (Middle School Confidential, p. 81)
■ Using these stories students will complete the workbook p. 62
○ For homework, students will be reading and practicing their fluency skills
independently with a text given to them on workbook p. 63
2. Research-based practices?
● Analyze the ways this instruction matches or diverges from Class 10 readings on reading
fluency instruction. Be sure to cite class readings to back up your points.
Matches Diverges

“One-minute fluency measures do reliably identify students who are at risk for reading
difficulty. However, they may not map onto current definitions of fluency. Because of this,
they may generate misunderstanding about students’ fluency, which in turn, may lead to
inappropriate instruction.” (Deeney, 2010, p. 440)

● During lesson 2, students are trying
out a one-minute fluency activity to
see how many WPM they are able to
read
● Students may rush to read as many
words as they can but not follow any
of the other aspects of fluency that is
needed to consider reading to be fluent
○ Ie. students reading with
expression, reading accurately
● Even if a student can read fast they
may be place in the wrong fluency

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“Some suggestions for instructing the techniques for fluency and endurance are as follows:
● Increase automaticity
● Decrease readability levels
● Read interesting texts
● Increase reading volume
● Increase expectations
● Reread books
● Engage parents and caregivers”
(Deeney, 2010, p. 447)
● Students are consistently practicing
fluency which allows for them to
increase their automaticity
● Students are reading numerous texts
throughout the lessons therefore it is
increasing their reading volume and
expanding their range of genre
● Teachers set expectations for reading
fluency through the fluency routine,
although this routine is practiced over
and over and does not evolve
“For struggling students who are learning to read, the implication is to choose books for
instruction that students will be able to read with at least 95% accuracy once instruction is
finished with that text.” (Rodgers et al., 2018, p. 152)
● Based on students fluency a teacher
will picked out a leveled fluency book
for students to read
grouping for independent/partner
reading
● The books that students are reading to
practice their fluency are chosen for
them therefore the topics of these text
may not interest them
● Students are not given the chance with
this curriculum and seen in these
lesson plans to reread texts that they
have previously read in prior lessons,
they move from one reading to the
next
● From looking at the homeworks that
students are given it does not
explicitly state for students to read the
reading aloud to a parent or caregiver,
this may be up to the teachers
discretion and who is around the
student while they are completing the
homework
● The curriculum does not address the
different types of readers that may be
in the classroom therefore it does not
address specifics on how to work with
the different grouping of readers
○ Struggling or independent
readers
● There are three different instructional
levels based on fluency of students
○ “Independent Level- Relatively
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 easy for the student to read
(95% word accuracy).
○ Instructional Level-
Challenging but manageable
for the reader (90% word
accuracy).
○ Frustration Level- Difficult
text for the student to read (less
than 90% word accuracy).”
(Partnership for Reading,
2001)
■ Nowhere in this
curriculum are fluency
levels discussed and
how a teacher should
go about teaching each
of the levels of students
● Teachers are not given instructions on
how to work with students to improve
their fluency levels other than to
continue to read
○ Could teachers be making
small groups to work with…?
○ Pair groups for practicing
reading fluently?

“They called this domain scaffolding, in that the teacher provided appropriate instruction
within the domain of word solving.” (Rodgers et al., 2018, p. 154)

Students may become challenged while

practicing fluent reading when they come
across words that they may not know.
Therefore, through clarifying activities and
working on their vocabulary students will
widen their range of vocabulary and words for
them to be able to read more fluently.

Fluency Instructions takeaways from my Class Prep 10:

1. Give students as much opportunity to read and reread a range of genres of stories and
informational text. This can be done in choral reading, partner reading, and
independently.
2. Introduce tricky and unknown words and their meanings prior to reading. This will
allow the students to be able to understand it when it comes to a context in the story.
They will not stop and become confused.
3. When demonstrating reading to students reading with expression and fluency and the
students will begin to model it the same.

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 4. Students need opportunities for text selection that allow for appropriate difficult texts
which can lead to reading fluency.

● Students are able to practice reading
fluently while reading in partners or
independently
● Students are introduced to unknown
words prior to reading during whole
class mini lessons
● Teacher will model fluent reading
during most lessons to students
● Students will be reading a range of
texts, some that will be more difficult
than others which will lead to whole
class fluency growth
● Students are not able to choose books
that interest them to practice their
fluency rather the students are given
leveled books by the teacher
● Student are not given time to reread
previous text
● Choral reading is not shown in this
curriculum

C. Comprehension Environment and Instruction

Analyze how the approach to teaching comprehension used in the STARI materials matches or
diverges from research-based recommendations for practice.
To do this, please address the following specific questions adapted from Figure 10.6 from the
Duke & Pearson (2002) article (appended at the end of this document)

Overall Reading Program

1. How much time do students spend actually reading?
○ Overall students are typically reading 10-20 minutes per lesson. Depending on the
content of each lesson students may be reading more or less than the 10-20 minute
range. Reading materials will be seen in the student workbooks as well as texts
given to them by their teacher such as Middle School Confidential and the fluency
level texts.
2. Do students have clear and compelling purposes in mind when reading?
○ While students are reading, their main purpose is to interpret with fluency.
Teachers also want the students to fully understand what they are doing either
independently or in pairings prior to them doing it. Instructions are extremely
explicit and laid out for teachers in the lesson plan breakdowns. Tasks that are
seen earlier on in the lessons such as lessons 2&3 are processes that are continued
in lessons 11, and 13-15. These procedures are constantly practiced in order to
instill an internal procedure that they hope students can apply to later units and
lessons.
3. Are students given instruction in decoding?
○ Students are not given specifics on decoding, rather they are designated as key
vocabulary words prior to reading. The teacher will present these words to
students on the board and say them outloud to the students. The students will then
repeat what their teacher just told them.
○ Explicit decoding instruction could be helpful for struggling readers who may
need more direction than with the vocabulary words that are taught to the whole

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 class. These students may need help in breaking down words letter by letter and
putting the sounds of the letters together to create the word aloud. A teacher may
have to sit with these students as they are reading the text aloud to make sure that
they are properly decoding and pronouncing the words within the text.
4. How much time do students spend writing texts for others to comprehend or with the
reading /writing connection emphasized?
○ Typically students are spending about 20 minutes where reading and writing are
connected together. During this part of the lesson, students are reading a text
either given to them by their teacher such as Middle School Confidential or a text
in their workbooks. Students will then take these readings and apply them to
answering comprehension questions and opinionated questions in their student
workbooks that correspond with their current lesson. The purpose of having
students work on these writing tasks is to ensure that they are comprehending and
understanding what they are reading. The teacher will also have students discuss
these tasks in order to compare their answers and have students correct some of
their responses if they are not fully comprehending what they have read.
5. Are students afforded an environment rich in high quality talk about text?
○ Yes, students are consistently involved in high quality talk about the text.
“Engaging in discussion can also positively affect students’ comprehension”
(Duke, Ward, Parson, 2021, p. 668). In each of the lessons, students are discussing
either a whole class or in partners what they are reading about. Along with this,
they are completing activities in their student workbooks that lead towards this
high quality talk about the text. After students finish an activity in their
workbooks, teachers are encouraged to have students discuss their answers with
one another. It will allow the students to share their thoughts and opinions with
each other.

Comprehension Strategy Instruction

6. WHAT are students taught about comprehension strategies? Are students taught any
of the comprehension strategies listed in Figure 10.6 (Duke and Pearson, 2002) ( e.g.,
identify purpose for reading, preview the text before reading, etc.)? Please describe those
that are taught and make connections to course readings where possible.
○ Preview texts before reading
■ In previewing the text before reading, students are able to see what the
context of a story is about. It allows students to start to think about the
topics that they may encounter while reading. It can also begin to activate
any background knowledge that a student may have about the topic of
reading. During this time students may also begin to create questions that
they may have about the text.
■ “...the reader may preview the text in advance of reading it to begin to
ascertain the structure. Attention to the structure of the text during reading
may provide a helpful scaffold for the syntactic complexity and conceptual
density that are characteristic of many written texts” (Duke, Ward, Parson,
2021, p. 666).
○ Activate background knowledge for reading

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 ■ While previewing texts and reading excerpts, students are able to connect
to certain topics that they may already know about
■ Students can also activate their background knowledge when previewing
vocabulary
● Some students may know words that others do not
○ Summarize what they read
■ After reading, both teachers and students should summarize. This will help
with comprehension of the text. In summarizing students and teachers
should be asking the 5 W’s in order to best understand the text. It will
develop the assistance to summarize because if a text is taking place over
the course of a few days it will help give a refresh of a prior day when
referring back to the text.
■ “In extended writing activities improved their reading comprehension
more than question-answering activities did when assessed by an extended
writing task and that writing summaries improved their comprehension
more than question answering did when students were asked to write
down everything they could remember about the text they had read
(Hebert, Simpson, & Graham, 2013)” (Duke, Ward, Parson, 2021, p. 669).
■ The summarization of a text can be done both orally and in writing.
Writing sometimes helps students more because they can refer back to it
as needed.
○ Handle unfamiliar words during reading
■ In order for students to be able to comprehend a text they may come
across words that they do not know.
■ “...research has found that teaching students the meanings of words in text
supports their comprehension of that text, although there is little evidence
that doing so improves comprehension overall (Wright & Cervetti, 2017)”
(Duke, Ward, Parson, 2021, p. 667).
■ Students that understand each of the words that are within the text will
help to build the comprehension of the words within sentences and from
the sentences to paragraphs. It will create an overall meaning of the text.
This also relates towards the interactive model of reading. Students will
look at the letters within the word to make sense of the word. They will
then progress to understanding how that word makes sense within a
sentence. In the end it will help with the comprehension of paragraphs and
full texts.
○ Monitor comprehension while reading
■ Students monitor while reading both independently and when reading in
pairings in order to make sure that they are understanding what they are
reading, as well as making sure that they are reading everything that is
presented to them on the page
■ “...comprehension monitoring provides a form of feedback to readers as to
whether they have read a word accurately” (Duke, Ward, Parson, 2021, p.
666).

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 ■ It is important that students work on this strategy because they need to
understand the text as a whole. If the students miss a part of the reading
they then may not understand everything that they read.
7. HOW are students taught comprehension strategies?. Evaluate STARI
comprehension strategy instruction. Give examples and briefly explain your answer.
○ Preview texts before reading
■ Lesson 2
● Before listening to the tracks on pages 6-8 in the student
workbook, the teacher will review each section of questions that
students will be listening for
○ Allows students to listen for specifics when hearing the
recording
■ Lesson 3
● Students will preview “What’s Your Birth Order?” fluency passage
workbook p. 13 before silently reading passage independently
● When answering the comprehension questions at the bottom of
workbook p. 14 students will preview the questions and then go
into the text to find the answers
■ Lesson 11
● Students will be presented with the new story on workbook p.47 as
well as having the story presented to them on slide 28, “Happy to
Be Herself”
■ Lesson 13
● Students will preview vocabulary words that they will be seeing in
their reading of chapter 2 of Middle School Confidential
● Students will preview questions on workbook p.55 that will relate
to their reading of Middle School Confidential
■ Lesson 15
● Students will preview workbook p. 62 Dealing with Bullies and
locate the topic “tough times” in the index of Middle School
Confidential
○ Activate background knowledge for reading
■ Lesson 3
● As students are previewing the text “What’s Your Birth Order?”
students may begin to connect the title of the text to their own lives
and begin to generate questions in their head about what they are
going to read
■ Lesson 11
● As students are presented the new text “Happy to Be Herself” they
will begin to scan the text itself and see if they can think of
anything that can relate to the text
■ Lesson 13
● Teacher will be setting a purpose for this reading of Middle School
Confidential. This will have students starting to think about what
they may be reading in Chapter 2.
■ Lesson 15

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 ● While students are previewing workbook p.62 and locating a
similar topic within Middle School Confidential “tough times”
students can begin to think about how the two topics will relate and
what questions they may have about it
○ Summarize what they read (similar to monitoring comprehension while reading)
■ Lesson 2
● Student will fill in pages 6-8 in their workbook based on what they
heard from the tracks played to them
■ Lesson 11
● Mini-lesson dedicated towards teaching students about “What
belongs in a summary?” (Teacher Lesson Plans, p. 85)
● Teacher will prepare students to ask themselves questions from
workbook p. 47 as they read
○ What’s new that I’m learning here?
○ How does this connect to the main idea?
○ Do I need to remember all of this to get the point?
● After students read “Happy to Be Herself” they will record their
ideas of the main point and check off facts that support the main
idea on workbook p. 47
● When students read “Blackmail” they are reminded to think of the
5 W’s that they have learned previously that will help them to
summarize the longer story
○ They will fill out workbook p. 48 and illustrate a picture to
summarize the last key event that they read about
■ Lesson 15
● Students will be answering questions on workbook p. 62 in
relation to Zoe’s story Middle School Confidential p. 70 and Sean’s
story seen on p. 81
○ Handle unfamiliar words during reading
■ Lesson 13
● Interactive vocabulary preview
○ Teacher will present to students four vocabulary words that
they will be introduced to in their reading of Middle School
Confidential. The teacher will present slide 33 as students
are following along in their workbook on p. 55. During this
time the teacher will go over the works as well as give the
students definitions and ask them questions about each of
the vocabulary words
■ Allow for students to stop and jot words and
phrases that will be shown on the slides
■ Lesson 14
● Students will be using clarifying to find the meaning of unknown
words by using context clues (teacher lesson plans, p. 107)
● Slide 34 & 35 (teacher lesson plans, p. 108), students will be
following along with this on workbook p. 56

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 ○ “When you clarify, you notice words that don’t make
sense- that’s step one.”
○ “Step two is trying to figure out the challenge words.
Looking for a base word you know is one way to clarify
it.”
○ “Sometimes you will see a meaning for the challenge word
right in the text. Another way to clarify is to look for a
meaning in the sentence.”
● For homework students will practice more on cariftying on
workbook p. 59
○ Students will be introduced to the assignment and complete
the first world “coerced” together as a class. The rest will
be completed for homework
■ Lesson 15
● Review More on Clarifying homework from lesson 14
○ “Draw attention to the sentence structures that sometimes
help us clarify:
■ a phrase after a challenging word, often enclosed in
a pair of commas
■ a word after a challenging word, link to it with the
words “and” or “or” (Teacher lesson plans, p.115)
● For homework students will be completing another Clarifying
assignment seen on workbook p. 63, as the teacher presents slides
37-38
○ “Explain that sometimes we find clues about a word's
meaning in the next sentence.” (Teacher lesson plans, p.
119)
■ The teacher will walk the class through the first
word “ample” and do this together as a class
○ Monitor comprehension while reading
■ Lesson 2:
● Student will fill in pages 6-8 in their workbook based on what they
heard from the tracks played to them
○ Each section of questions will have students listening for a
certain aspect of fluency (speed, accuracy, and expression)
● students will be answering questions about the tracks 10 and 11
that they listened to on p. 10 of their workbooks
■ Lesson 3:
● “Students will answer the comprehension and discussion questions,
and the teacher will introduce the fluency chart for records WPM.”
(Teacher Lesson Plans, p.21)
○ Students will answer questions at the bottom of p.14 in
their workbook based on what they read in “What’s Your
Birth Order?”
○ Teacher will model looking back in the text for finding
answers

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 ■ Lesson 11:
● When students are working on the story “Blackmail” they will be
working on summarizing the final part of the story, since they have
read the rest of it in a prior lesson. This lesson specifically focuses
the students on monitoring their comprehension on this specific
part of the text that they are reading while answering the 5 W’s.
■ Lesson 13
● Students will answer a comprehension question related to their
reading of Middle School Confidential chapter 2 at the bottom of
workbook p. 55.
■ Lesson 14
● On workbook p. 56 students will read a sentence and monitor their
own comprehension by following the steps presented to them
● Students will be taking a quiz on Middle School Confidential
○ Students will take a quiz on workbook p. 58 and score it
themselves their answers will be based upon the Middle
School Confidential p. 30
○ After concluding the quiz ask students, whole group, to
share their thoughts about individual questions or the quiz
as a whole
■ Lesson 15
● Have students share their passages in which they read during
partner fluency work and give a quick summary of the passage
content
● Students will be breaking into pairs to read the comic strip
sequence on p. 24 and p. 27-28 of Middle School Confidential after
the whole class will debrief the cartoon sequence (Teacher Lesson
plans, pp. 117)

Which of the instructional strategies listed below are used in the STARI lessons?
a. explicit description of the strategy and when it should be used - students are not
explicitly told when they are using a certain strategy, rather teachers are assuming
that they are teaching student to use all of the strategies that they have learned so
far when practicing
b. modeling of the strategy in action- teachers model out most of the strategies to
students prior to releasing the responsibility to them. This will allow for students
to participate in a whole group mini lesson of a strategy prior to using it on their
own, along with other strategies that they have been taught. When modeling an
activity to the students, they will understand the task at hand and will hopefully
not have as many questions when they work on it on their own. Model helps many
students to see how something is done first.
c. collaborative use of the strategy in action- students will work in partner pairs to
practice their fluency skills and fluency routines with one another. Students will
also work on summarizing as a whole class. Many of the strategies are first taught
and then the teacher will allow students to work in pairing or small groups to
complete tasks.

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 d. Guided practice using the strategy, with gradual release of responsibility-
similarly to “b”, strategies and practices are modeled to students first before they
work in small groups, pairings, or independently. This will allow students to fully
understand strategies and practices to best be used, without having students try
them out on their own and then being instructed. This would potentially result in
students not understanding what is being asked of them.
e. Independent practice using the strategy- this is seen when students are completing
readings and questions independently. Students are also assigned homework in
some of the lessons which is meant to be done independently.

Other Teaching Considerations

8. Are texts carefully chosen to match the instruction and students? Give examples and
explain your answer.
○ I believe that the texts were chosen carefully to match the student instruction. For
lesson 2, students are presented with audio texts that they will follow along with
in their workbook. By listening to the audio students will begin to understand how
a text should be read fluently. Other shorter texts that are given to students in their
workbooks that correspond to the lessons perfectly. Each of the texts do not seem
that difficult for students to understand, rather they seem to be more
straightforward. They will foster students to learn in the specific lesson that they
are in. While students are reading Middle School Confidential they will be
looking to monitor their comprehension as well as work on their vocabulary and
summarizing skills. Furthermore, students will be able to relate to this book since
this curriculum that is being taught is meant for 6th graders, which is considered
middle school. Many of the students while reading may relate to aspects of the
story.
9. Is there concern for student motivation to engage in literacy activities and apply strategies
learned? Give examples and explain your answer.
○ There can always be a concern for student motivation to engage in literacy
activities and apply the strategies that they are learning. One of the biggest
concerns is that students cannot relate to the topic of the reading and they will
quickly become disengaged with the reading and all the skills that are being
applied towards it. Along with this, if a student is a struggling reader they may
struggle with practicing their fluency skills. They may not want to read as
partners, therefore they may refuse to participate and/or even try at reading.
Students who struggle with applying the strategies they have learned towards a
reading or activity may also have a hard time doing so because they have not yet
understood/mastered what they are supposed to be doing. If this happens, a
teacher could make a small group to help those students to understand the
strategies that they have not yet completely understood.

D. Overall Evaluation of the STARI curriculum

Conclude with a brief overall evaluation of the STARI curriculum.
a) What are its most important strengths?

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 I believe that the curriculum is very direct and easy to follow for both teachers
and students. I like how page numbers and the more important aspects of the teacher
instruction are bolded and italicized. Each of the lessons gives a good overview at the
beginning of each lesson before diving into each of the parts of the lesson plans. I believe
that in the earlier lessons 2 and 3 good procedures are laid out for teachers to instill in the
students that will be followed throughout the unit. In lesson 3 I like the explanation of the
Fluency Levels in STARI and how fluency texts should be assigned for students based on
levels. I believe that this is a well laid out explanation for teachers to look at and they can
refer back to it throughout the unit. If a teacher has the time they may be able to retest
students to see if their fluency level has increased or decreased and this may change the
leveling of fluency books that they should be reading. I think that having students read
Middle School Confidential is a very fitting book. I feel that most students will be able to
relate to some aspects that the book presents.

b) What would you change or what kinds of additions/extensions do you think are
needed?
One aspect that I think needs to be further investigated within the curriculum is
the timing of each of the fragments of the lessons. I would like to see if they would
actually be able to be complete in the time that is stated. I know that other curriculums
have times laid out for teachers as well, but sometimes the timings are not accurate. This
is because teachers may have to dive deeper into certain topics, to allow students to
completely understand. Another aspect that I think needs an explanation of how students
should be grouped together for leveled fluency passages. I believe that making pairings
for this should be simple. Potentially pairing a higher fluency student with a lower
fluency student or having the partners be reading the same fluency text. This part should
be left to the teacher's discretion. Although this is never fully stated in the teacher lesson
plans. I personally would have a higher fluency student work with a lower fluency
student so that the lower fluency student would have a good example of what their
reading should sound and look like. Although, it does make me wonder how can a higher
fluency student then improve on their fluency skills if they are working with a lower
fluency student. Along with this, I think that while students are practicing their fluency
skills through the fluency leveled readings, it may not be completely meeting the needs of
the readers. There are three different types of readers based on fluency, independent,
skilled and struggling readers. Those that are considered struggling readers and even
skilled readers may need further assistance and monitoring when reading their fluency
level books. Students during this time are reading independently. Therefore, if these
students are struggling during this time, it may be helpful if they can read with another
person that is reading the same text as them or sometimes even with a teacher. This
would be a great time for a teacher to also pull small groups of students who are
struggling in the class with the readings and to work more on specific skills that are seen
in the lessons.

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 References

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Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 63(6), 440–450. https://doi.org/10.1598/rt.63.6.1

Duke, N. K., & Pearson, P. D. (2002). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension.

In A. E. Farstrup & S. J. Samuels (Eds.), What research has to say about reading

instruction (3rd ed., pp. 205-242). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Duke, N. K., Ward, A. E., & Pearson, P. D. (2021). The science of reading comprehension

instruction. The Reading Teacher, 74(6), 663-672

Fox, A., & Kindt, M. (2018). Real Friends vs. the Other Kind (Middle School Confidential)

(Book 1 ed.). Free Spirit Publishing Inc.

Kucan, L. (2012). What Is Most Important to Know About Vocabulary? The Reading Teacher,

65(6), 360–366. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.01054

Partnership for Reading. (2001). Fluency: An Introduction. Reading Rockets. Retrieved

December 15, 2021, from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/fluency-introduction

Rodgers, E., D’Agostino, J. V., Kelly, R. H., & Mikita, C. (2018). Oral Reading Accuracy:

Findings and Implications From Recent Research. The Reading Teacher, 72(2), 149–157.

https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1686

SERP Institute. (2020). STARI Unit 1.1 Materials. Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention

(STARI). Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://access.serpinstitute.org/stari/

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