Reading Lesson Components
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Focused Instruction: Introduces the primary objective of each Reading lesson through an animation or a 2 to 3-minute instructional video facilitated by an age-appropriate host. Focused Instruction reinforces a specific skill objective associated with a single strategy.
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Interactive Practice: Allows the student to experience applied practice in the concept or skill that was presented. These independent activities are driven by skills and objectives, and are designed to address all Reading strands. Supportive feedback provides assistance when students have difficulty with items. Interactive Practice presents 4 to 15 questions or tasks, based on the student’s performance.
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Interactive Text Readers: Permit students to practice key skills and objectives in context. Text Readers are Lexiled passages followed by a comprehension activity. Each passage text contains art and photos, as well as rollover audio for hyperlinked glossary words. Each Text Reader has assessments that measure comprehension and application of key skills and strategies. The main types of Text Reader assessment activities are multiple-choice questions and highlighting activities in grades K–8. Graphic organizer activities are also used in grades 6–8.
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Print Partners: Provide for further skill practice after SuccessMaker sessions or as homework, include opportunities for open-ended response, and provide writing practice. Print Partners are PDF files that are printed and completed offline.
Readability and Lexile Metrics of Text Readers
The text in the Text Readers was crafted specifically to address instructional objectives, topics, themes, key vocabulary, and the designated Lexile range for each grade level.
Lexile Metrics
| Grade Level | Controlled Texts | Read Alouds | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lexile-Level Range | Number of Words | Lexile-Level Range | Number of Words | |
|
K-1 |
BR*–850 |
50–120 |
200–900 |
200–500 |
|
2-3 |
420–820 |
100–400 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
4-5 |
740–1010 |
350–500 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
6-8 |
920–1190 |
500–650 |
N/A |
N/A |
A select number of passages within each grade may fall outside the designated range due to content-specific vocabulary; however, course features such as roll-over audio, corrective feedback, glossary links, and images compensate for the higher readability score.
The Lexile range for grades K–2 is expanded to enable exposure to a variety of texts and topics. Many of the texts in grades K–2 are read-aloud, which means audio support is initially enabled and the texts are read to the students. Students are not expected to read these texts on their own.
These texts are similar to picture books that are read-alouds to students in the classroom. The read-alouds provide an opportunity for emergent and early readers to listen to rich text while viewing vivid illustrations, which are essential in developing advanced vocabulary and listening comprehension skills.
In addition to read-alouds, another type of text students can experience is controlled text. Controlled text passages were crafted to address specific phonics objectives, high-frequency vocabulary objectives, and content area objectives. The words students encounter in these texts are words within the program for which they have received focused instruction.
Students have the option of selecting a read-to-me function in a controlled text; therefore, even though the words and phrases in a controlled text passage have been previously introduced to students, they can still request additional support via the audio functionality. The audio support in the controlled text passages is available at the word level in grades K–2. The student is able to select individual words to hear them pronounced correctly.
Read to Me Feature for Text Reader and Reading Portal
When creating a custom course or editing an assignment, teachers can disable the passage text audio support for Text Reader and Reading Portal Learning Objects
A collection of shared content objects related to a skill., preventing students from hearing the passage text read aloud. This helps students prepare for their high stakes tests where audio may not be available.
This can be configured for grade K-2 and grade 3+ students separately. Read to Me for grade K-2 students is on by default, while Read to Me for grade 3+ students is off by default.
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Read to me option can be enabled/ disabled at the Student, Teacher, or Group assignment level for any new or in-progress assignment.
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Teachers can also enable or disable the Read to me option when creating a new Custom by Settings, Custom by Skills, or Custom by Standards course.
When the student runs a course with Read to me is disabled:
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Passage text audio is disabled for Text Reader and Reading Portal Learning Objects and the Read to Me button is disabled, preventing the student from hearing the passage text read aloud.
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Auto play, hover text, and select-to-play audio for the passage text WILL NOT play.
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Instruction audio, activity questions, answer options, Glossary entries, and Coach prompts WILL play.
The default setting when creating a new course is disabled. All audio in the course is disabled.
For more information on using the Read to me feature, see "Reading Course and Assignment Settings" in SuccessMaker Help.
Genre
The texts in SuccessMaker Reading are approximately 40% fiction and 60% nonfiction.
| Fiction Genre Includes: | ||
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| Non-Fiction Genre Includes: | ||
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| Types of Poetry Include: | |
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