In this episode of FUEL Up!, Katie and Kevin take a closer look at Scarborough’s Reading Rope and explore how the strands of skilled reading are already woven throughout EL Education’s K–5 literacy curriculum. Rather than treating the Reading Rope as another thing teachers need to memorize or add to their plates, the conversation focuses on using it as a lens for understanding the instruction already happening in classrooms.
Now that you know the purpose and how it links into the science of reading, using that reading rope, now you can be intentional and make sure you don't skip it. It's important.
Knowing the rope is one thing, but seeing how this visual framework of the rope lives and the instruction that we do every day, what we're already delivering-you know-that's our hope that you can connect the two and understand their purpose for being there. Welcome back to Fuel Up, a place for conversations with and for those using EL education as a resource to support K5 literacy learning. We are so excited to have you with us for this week's episode. Today we zoom in on the topic of Scarborough's reading rope. We hope today's talk serves as a pit stop, a chance to swing by for some fresh energy, insights, encouragement, and celebration as we work together to do what's best for our learners. This is a chance to fuel up. So wherever this finds you today, we hope you are able to pull over, take a breath, and crank it up. And in that spirit, here we go. We are locked in and ready to go for what we hope is a helpful conversation. Today we talk about Scarborough's reading rope, Katie. We have been part of a number of conversations and learning about best practices for literacy, and you know, recently there has been a number of literacy words circulating. Maybe we call them buzzwords. What is one of those words or phrases that has risen to the surface for you?
Oh boy, there are so many buzzwords right now, from morphology to science of reading. I think the one that's really recently stood out to me is knowledge building curriculum. Okay, and that's really just intentionally building background and vocabulary knowledge, and when I'm in those circles and people are talking about that, I feel very fortunate that we have EL. Yeah, right. That's EL. So, yeah, that's one. What about you? What are some of those buzzwords for you?
Yeah, the one that comes to mind that I've heard in the last number of years that I don't remember hearing when I started in the profession is structured literacy. Structured literacy-that way of organizing and delivering reading instruction to make sure kids get all the skills that they need in a very efficient time frame. You know, all the teaching is explicit and direct, so that one is one that stood out to me. That it's we've been talking about, and you know, I think Yale does a pretty good job of that, especially in their skills block. Those cycles one through 75 that kids go through in an organized way.
Absolutely. So both of our buzzwords really are linked to our resource. Yeah. So we have
knowledge building and structured literacy, and maybe we toss some other ones in there, like the science of reading, and if you're in Michigan, the essential instructional practices and the reading rope, and all of those. And you know, you may wonder how do all of these connect, and how do they weave into the resource that we use, Yale Education, on a daily basis, and you know we don't have time or this space today to talk about all of the words, all of those buzzwords that we put on the table today. But we are going to zoom in on one, and that's Scarborough's reading rope. And to build coherence and get us all on the same page, let's take a minute to get grounded. Katie, what is is Scarboro's reading rope?
Yes, great question. So, Scarborough's reading rope is not new. It was actually designed in 1990 by Dr. Hollis Scarbo. He developed the reading rope model to help those in education and families at home better understand how reading develops, so the model he designed visually shows how multiple literacy skills intertwine and weave together over time. With the final product, is that skilled reading, and the reading rope explains how skilled reading develops through the interaction of word recognition and language comprehension. This is really found in the science of reading, which is another one of those buzzwords we talked about. And the model helps understand how skills such as phonological awareness. Coding, vocabulary, syntax, background knowledge, and verbal reasoning work together to support fluent reading and comprehension. Wow, there's a lot there.
Yeah, lots of things that go into developing as a skilled reader. I'm reminded of a time when we were learning about this, and we built a model with pipe cleaners. So you had like all these different, you know, pipe cleaners, and you labeled them with the different pieces of the reading rope, and then you got to twist them together to, you know, actually feel and see what this thing would look like. And whether you come to this conversation today with a lot of background knowledge on the reading rope, or you've heard the word and you're like, man, you know, I I I know it, but I don't think I could explain it to somebody. Or maybe you're like, this is the first time I'm hearing that. Let's take a minute just to get on the same page, looking at the different parts of the rope. So there are two main strands. There's the upper strand and the lower strand. We're going to talk about both of these just for a few minutes, just to give some short, quick summary definitions. So as we continue our conversation, you have some background knowledge that you can bring to what we're talking about. Katie, I'll take the upper strand, language comprehension. You want to take the word recognition, the lower strand.
That sounds great. All right,
so we're going to start with the upper strand, the language comprehension. And listen, these higher level skills are all about helping a reader make sense and understand what the words they see actually mean. It's about making sense and understanding, and there's five pieces to this part of the rope, that upper strand. The first one is background knowledge, and that's what the reader already knows about the world. The second is vocabulary, knowing the meaning of words. We've talked about both of both of these on this podcast. The next is language structures, understanding grammar, syntax, and sentence patterns. And again, if syntax is a new word, that's just about how the words are arranged in sentences. The fourth part is verbal reasoning, the skill of drawing conclusions and making inferences, smart guesses, and understanding figures of speech. And then the last is literacy knowledge, understanding print concepts and genres and text organization. How how these things work. So the top strand, the upper strand, language comprehension is those five pieces. And now, tossing it over to Katie. Katie, talk to us about the bottom strand.
All right, that lower strand is really word recognition, so that is those foundational skills that are going to help a reader identify and decode printed words accurately and efficiently. And really, over time, these skills are going to become automatic. So some of those skills in that strand are phonological awareness, hearing, and playing with the sounds and words. That's like the rhymes that you do, and what's the first sound, last sound, and then decoding, linking letters to sounds to sound out those unfamiliar words, and then sight recognition. That's instantly recognizing familiar or irregular words without needing to decode them. That's that's the lower strand. Seems a little lighter than the upper strand, but it's very important. Yeah, well, you only have three bullets. I have five bullets. That's what I'm saying. Those three carry some weight. They sure do. They sure they might be. I think they're equal. They're all very important, even though yours had a few more on them. Yeah,
and as you think about like readers we've had in our classrooms over the last number of years, I just remember this model. You have a reader in front of you, and this kid is an incredible decoder. I mean, they can read any word you put in front of them, you're like, man, this kid is such a great, strong reader. And then you ask them to retell, or you know, say what this text was about, and they don't have a clue because they're missing some of those skills from the upper strand,
right?
Or you have a kid that comes in, and man, and in your conversation, their vocabulary and understanding of words, or if you're reading aloud to them and they can tell you back and they have all those skills, and then you put the word in front of them and you ask them to read into code, and they don't have that, they're not a skilled reader yet either. And you know, so just to think about situations of students we've had in the past and apply to the rope, some of it makes a little bit of sense.
Yes, you need both of those to go together to be able to understand, comprehend, and be fluent.
Right.
So these strands don't live on their own; they go together to make a really strong rope or a really strong reader.
And you may be wondering, like, how does this connect to the resource we use? EL education and you know, Katie, we're and I were talking. Even the way that the resources are set up mirrors this rope. So you have the upper strand like language comprehension, and the lower strand word recognition. And in the upper strand language comprehension is the main focus of the module lessons that hour block. And the word recognition, the lower strand, is the main focus of skills block for k2, and also pieces of three through five in all block in the updated complement to all block foundations. If you're using that, and so even looking at the two different hours of EL, you can see how it mirrors the different strands of Scarborough's reading rope,
and I think that's where we're very lucky with the EL curriculum that it was built to support the science of reading and that reading rope with those two separate blocks.
Yeah, there was a conversation we had once about a school who was only implementing the module, and the question was like, "Man, where do my kids get all their decoding? And you're like, "Well, it shows up a little bit, but this isn't the heart of this part of the the EL resource, right? Right. The module work is really heavy on the language, and so you know, if you're a district that's only doing the top, maybe there's some greater understanding of why you might not be seeing some of the other pieces on the rope, and that's because the complement skills block, or some all block, or the all block foundations-that's where some of that lower part of the rope lives.
I think that's really important to note that they are two separate components of EL.
So again, why are we talking about this today? And knowing the rope is one thing, but seeing how this visual framework of the rope lives and the instruction that we do every day, what we're already delivering-you know-that's our hope that you can connect the two. We're not asking anybody to memorize the rope. This isn't, you know. There's no power in just having the rope memorized. But if we can, as leaders of learning in our classroom, and as we plan for those things, if we can actually see how pieces of the rope that work to develop a skilled reader are already embedded in the inside the instruction we're doing, that part of that's empowering to see that and to know which parts that we really need to lean into, and understand their purpose for being there. And so, for the next few minutes, Katie and I are just going to talk about some scenarios from our resource EL, so you can see how some of the pieces of the rope kind of weave together even in a daily lesson because the pieces of the rope don't live by themselves. You are not expected to have a dedicated time for language structures and a dedicated time for vocabulary and a dedicated block for you know whatever.
So it's important to know these can be done together and being intentional about it, and I think these examples will pull the will show you how to do that.
With that said, Katie and I are going to talk through some of these. So picture this: a second grade nonfiction read aloud about fossils. Katie and I have talked about this. Is the anchor text in the room, everything revolves around this text. I think we used the illustration of a sun at a previous episode, and so you have that anchor text out, and you're reading a lot of this nonfiction text about fossils, and you stop on the word decompose, and you ask students what they already know about how things break down. You are developing their background knowledge, and all of a sudden, this other tier two word comes up: ancient, and your conversation connects to fossils. Now, our vocabulary is developing in context with the connections to words that they already knew, and then all of a sudden, a complex sentence comes up in the text, and your lesson invites you to do a short language dive, and you're reading this complex sentence multiple times, talking about its structure and its meaning. That is language structures, including the syntax, like we talked about, and the arrangement of the words in the sentence. In this sentence is one kids rarely encounter in their own speech. And then you stop and you maybe include a turn and talk, and you allow them to have a conversation about what it would be like to find a fossil in your backyard, and you've just modeled verbal reasoning. And then, as part of the read aloud, you pause and you look at the illustrations and the various text features to gather new information about maybe the size of fossils or what they look like or what are the tools actually look like that archeologists use to excavate. And now your literacy knowledge and the use of text features is building. You see, none of these skills are done in isolation. They're all weaving together in our lessons to develop a skilled reader.
And you just went through every single strand of the upper rope.
Crazy, huh?
Right. And then one lesson. And one lesson. Yeah. And as you were talking, that is the upper rope. But I was thinking about the lower rope too. Yeah. And the lower rope you mentioned, we typically do in skills block.
Yeah.
But we could connect it here. You can do some of the decoding or sounding out the words for some of those vocabulary words. You can tap out the sounds in fossil, and you can break up and find the syllables and decompose.
Yes,
and talk about what that why we know this word means what it means, and so you can do some of those lower strands
totally
within this. Yes, you have to add it, but it goes to that being intentional about it and knowing what the strands are, and when you can use those to strengthen their word knowledge.
Yeah, it's one of those teacher calls. Like you have the background knowledge of what good practice looks like to build a skilled reader, and just as you're putting up that vocab card, you just you know add that for a quick minute.
Right, it's a minute or two, and it is so valuable to again connect the lower strand and the upper strand to start weaving those together to make the fluent reading.
I mean, that's a second grade example. You want to talk us through? We had a fourth grade example too of how that works. You want to talk us through that one?
I do. So in fourth grade, one of the favorite modules of mine is poetry.
Yep,
and so when we're thinking of that poetry, all the words that arise from the unit's content, right? We have rhythm and rhyme and repetition and stanza and structure. So with those words, we are building background knowledge. When you're breaking repetition into syllables on the board during syllable sleuth repetition, you have just reinforced decoding at that multisyllabic level, which is different than arcade two. Right, we're really taking it to that next level. There's morphology strengthening both decoding and vocabulary at the same time, and then you invite students to use the words in their own sentences during a student talk protocol, giving them that real practice in language structures. Four strands, one lesson.
Yes,
like So good,
yeah. Again, that's that one-hour lesson, and you can see how all of the pieces of the rope kind of weave in and out through that lesson. And you know, some people we've had conversations. We talked about language dive in the second grade example, and syllable sleuth came up in this one for fourth grade, and people have asked, like, what is this? What is the language dive in here for? What is the syllable sleuth in here for? We had a conversation with Kelly last year on language dives, but just even understanding the structure of the reading rope and all those skills and how they intertwine to make a skilled reader, you start to understand why those pieces are there, and maybe that helps better implement them. Even if sometimes it feels a little clunky, and we we've seen that. Like understanding why it's there allows you maybe to, you know, pull what you know in and smooth it out a little bit. You know, oh why am I doing the language type? Well, I'm showing kids language structures, how sentences are arranged, and how you can move things, and all of a sudden the meaning changes because these complex sentences are not ones they'd usually encounter in their normal day speech, and so we're modeling it, we're pulling it from text, the anchor text that we use. That's why it's there, and that's how it connects to the reading rope.
And I think it's purposeful. Yale was designed with this in mind, so these lessons and the things that you're finding, there's a purpose to them. Yeah, and I think if you don't know that purpose, it does feel clunky and something like I'm gonna pass on that. But now that you know the purpose and how it links into the science of reading using that reading rope, now you can be intentional and make sure you don't skip it. Yes, it's important,
and it makes me think about one more, and that's skills block for our k2 friends. You know, each week in Psycho, you're introducing a specific decoding skill, and even in how those mini lessons are rolled out, how it weaves back and forth between the decoding and some of the phonological skills are embedded in there, and then we give them a decodable reader that they can practice in the repetition and the reading of that text over and over builds some of the sight recognition where they just start to become very familiar. With identifying this word and become more automatic, and how those weave, and maybe you take that decodable, and all of a sudden, one of the days we're inviting kids to work with partners, and they're talking about maybe some response to questions or making some predictions, and now you've connected the verbal reasoning from the upper rope. You know, there's so many ways that you can interweave these skills, whether it's in skills block or the module lesson, on a daily basis. It's kind of cool.
That is a great example. Just because it's in skills block doesn't mean you have to live in that lower strand, and just because it's in module doesn't mean you need to live in the upper strand. Yes, and knowing the strand, you can interweave them together. You can add components to module that will hit the lower strand and skills block that will hit the upper strand. Yes, that was a great example. You know,
you made me think too. We were having a conversation before we started, and you had said something to the effect of those foundational skills. Sometimes we think it's k2, but that's a k5 skill.
Yeah, and the upper
the upper strand, the language structure. Sometimes we think that's just for upper grades. We'll hear people say, you know, when you're younger, you're learning to read, and as you get into grades three and other older, you're reading to learn. But you know what? This model just reminds us that you can read to learn in kindergarten, where you're reading and you're to learn about toys and some of the read alouds. And you know what? In third through fifth grade, you are also still learning to read, and you're learning how to decode multisyllabic words. And so, you know, let's be careful. We don't fall into the trap that as we look at the the reading rope, that it's only for certain grades. No, K through five lives in both of those grades, starting at kindergarten, and they both continue through fifth grade.
Absolutely, I think that was a really big aha earlier today when we were talking. That this is not K down here and third up here. That to your point, starting at kindergarten, start building background knowledge and vocabulary, and that will just help strengthen those skills once they're in fourth grade. Be more fluent and have strong comprehension.
You know, as we think about these examples, it's just a good reminder. We do not have to overhaul our lessons. Like, be mindful of the pieces that are in your lesson, identify them, and you know, lean into it. Moving forward, our hope is that as you and I and Katie, as we hear literacy words in you know professional learning or books or social media, whatever that is, that we can start to connect the dots to the resource we use on a daily basis, the lessons that we guide our learners through EL education. You know, talking about the rope today hopefully helps you in your lessons planning, showing which strands you're already strengthening multiple in one day, and if there are ones that you think are getting too little time, make some of those small tweaks because you know the different pieces from the reading rope that might help out,
and be confident. Be confident that this resource has the reading rope in it. It is science of reading, and you have a little, just a toe dip, right? You, we could have spent probably 12 episodes on science reading and reading rope and all of those buzzwords. So this is just a toe dip today, but hopefully it builds your background knowledge on the reading rope and how your resource of EL supports that. Sure. Yes.
Yep. There is no perfect resource.
No.
No. We're not saying every lesson and every piece of EL is perfect and is going to fully meet your needs. But we do hope that you can look at a lesson with your own background knowledge, and as you look at it and filter it through the reading rope, maybe that will help gain some your own understanding of how things are structured the way they are.
And you might have learned some new vocabulary totally fluent.
Yeah. Well, yeah. Us too.
Yes,
Katie. As we look at wrapping things up today, and we think about small steps, what would you invite people to consider as a first step or a next step around our resource and the reading rope as they head back into the work?
Yes. So as Kevin and I were talking before this, I think we actually had the same small step. Yeah, and it's very simple. It is print out the reading rope, and we'll link it today. It will be linked in our show notes, so it will be very easy. But you don't need to memorize it. You just need to be able to reference it and know the different strands. So print it out, have it available.
Yeah, just even let it serve as a reminder of the different skills that go into making a skilled reader, and maybe it would also be a confirmation as you implement lessons to be able to identify where those pieces are. And so, having it out as a printed picture might just serve as a great reminder. And so, that is a great one. And we're just going to leave it with one small step. A combined step today from the two of us. As we close up this episode, we hope you are leaving encouraged, inspired, and re-energized for the weeks ahead. And we're going to close things off today with high fives and hitchhikers. Here's the cool thing: we have the power to re-energize and refuel those around us. So find a colleague. It could be the person next door. It could be the person across the hall. Maybe it's in another grade. Find that colleague and give them a high five. Tell them you got this. Remind them you're a rock star. And pick them up as a hitchhiker. Invite them to join the conversation and take a seat with us at the table. All the best to you, and see you next time on Fuel Up.